


Of Bats and Dragons

by LanternWisp



Series: Nests and Cages [7]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Family Drama, Gen, Jason is Lady Shiva's son, Jealous Bruce Wayne, Protective Bruce Wayne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-08 20:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11654091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanternWisp/pseuds/LanternWisp
Summary: In the fallout of discovering his connection to Lady Shiva, Jason makes no secret about being completely finished with anything related to his biological parents.Unfortunately there is more in his genes than Bruce is willing to leave alone.





	1. Chapter 1

Jason had almost forgotten how good this felt: the familiar pull of his grappling line and the accompanying push of cold city air whilst soaring above Gotham’s streets. His body buzzed as he landed on a mid-rise roof with a smooth roll, reveling in the feel of asphalt under his boots.

Black Bat landed noiselessly beside him, the cape draped around her neck like a massive scarf billowing black and yellow in the winter breeze. Together they stood at the ledge and looked down into the dark back street below.

Most of upper Gotham hadn’t been renovated in generations, with some areas retaining the ancient cobbling and crumbling infrastructure of years past. The Stacked Deck was located on one such road: as one of the most historical buildings in Gotham’s scummy history, the notorious casino and pool hall was frequented by all tiers of criminality.

“I came here sometimes as a kid,” Jason said conversationally. “Lot of courier work to be found here. It’s also where I was gonna find someone to buy Batman’s tires, actually.”

They would’ve definitely ripped him off anyway.

“Hmm.”

“So just be mindful of any children that might be slinking around. Also, the bartender’s definitely gonna be packing something automatic.”

Black Bat nodded absently as she rubbed a nonexistent speck off one of Jason’s crimson vambraces.

“You look good.”

He felt good. As much as he’d liked his Red Hood getup, the jacket and trousers had really been better suited for his crime lord persona. Vigilante-ing had a different set of requirements.

The new armor was a dream of black and red and tungsten, and Jason really needed to remember to shout out to Barbara for helping to bring Cass’ doodles to life. Even the bat ears were kinda starting to grow on him.

“Thanks.”

“I was not paying compliment. I was taking credit.” She gave a playful tap to the reinforced glass of his helmet, right where his nose would be. “This is going to be fun.”

Jason went through the front, kicking the doors open and firing a taser dart into the bartender before all the heads in the room had even finished turning his way.

A second later Black Bat was swooping through the back door with a swift flourish, cape flaring behind her as she deployed a smoke grenade. There was shouting and the sounds of loading weapons as thick yellow smog swamped the gambling hall.

The HUD of Jason’s helmet sprang to life, highlighting the heat signatures of three dozen men around him. No children in sight. Good.

With a kick he flipped the nearest poker table on its side, the scarlet greaves attached to his boots making it the easiest thing to punt it into a group of men hard enough to knock them over like bowling pins. On the other side of the room he could hear the whip of Black Bat’s cape along with the harsh thuds of combat.

Jason caught a blind swing of a pool cue and cracked it into the bridge of his attacker’s nose. He then wrenched a billiards table upright in front of him, a split second later feeling it splinter and break with the raining force of small caliber bullets. When the firing ceased he backhanded the table aside, raining its pieces into a gaggle of stumbling thugs. A batarang was unhitched from his belt and struck the weapon from its shooter’s hand with a clatter.

The smoke was starting to thin and another grunt was coming at him with a semi-automatic handgun. Jason responded by ducking and rolling under the fire before slamming him into a wall so hard he could see the guy’s world spin.

At that moment another man must have lost his nerve because he was suddenly running for the exit. Jason didn’t even think about it when he picked the dropped gun off the ground and fired a single shot into the would-be escapee’s leg.

The room went quiet and still at the sound of his scream.

“Holy shit,” one of the men said hoarsely. “A bat just fucking used a gun.”

“ _Little brother_ ,” Black Bat said scoldingly.

“Reflex,” Jason said by way of apology, removing the magazine and tossing it onto the nearest upright table. “Alright gents. I’m sure you’re all aware of why we had to crash your little party.”

“Dunno what you’re talking about!” One man spat, kneeling on the floor and clutching what must have been a broken wrist. “We weren’t doin' nothing!”

“Oh no?” Jason asked in the smooth modulation of his helmet’s filter. “Because last I checked you and your friends were members of the Galante Family. And you were planning a move on the Wayne kids.”

There was a wary exchanging of glances amongst the conscious thugs.

“Now I know you must be a little sore about the car they drove into your restaurant, but come on. Kids, am I right? I’m sure they’re very sorry -“

“I would not be,” Black Bat said.

“So why don’t we let bygones be bygones-” Jason stabbed a 6-inch tactical knife into the polished surface of the bar, mere millimeters away from the hand of a man who’d been reaching for a pistol. “- before someone gets hurt.”

The man swallowed. “Just who the hell are you supposed to be, anyway?”

Jason opened his mouth to respond, but Black Bat beat him to it.

“Red Bat.”

“Red B- wait, what?” Jason lowered his voice and tried to subtly turn to her. “You said we’d think about this.”

“I have thought. And I have decided.” Black Bat folded her arms. “Red Bat.”

“But I -“

“You promised.”

Jason’s sigh was magnified by his modulator.

“Fine.” He turned back to the man. “We’ve already got someone spreading the word to your Russian friends, so here’s our message to you: no one hassles the Wayne kids, and that includes Brown. Anyone bothers her or her mom and they answer to us. Got it?”

He ripped his knife out of the bar.

“Good.”

As they trudged over the wood and glass debris to the exit, Jason could just make out over his shoulder,

“I fucking _told_ you Wayne was getting yiffed by Batman.”

* * *

 

“You used a gun.”

Jason groaned so loud it nearly echoed in the vast chambers of the Batcave.

The echo didn’t seem to go as far as usual though. The cave had become fuller lately, with all of the trophies from Jason’s days as Robin being brought out of storage for the first time in six years. No one said anything about it, nor did they mention his Robin suit being moved and displayed with the other old costume cases with its plaque pointedly missing.

“You told us to clean up our mess and we _did_. I agreed to no killing in Gotham. Not to no guns.”

Jason gave Cass a pointed look and she stuck her tongue out in return. The lack of firearm holsters for his suit hadn’t been subtle.

“Besides.” He turned back to Bruce, who was giving him the classic cold stare of judgement across from a forensics table. “It’s not like I planned to or anything. A guy was rabbiting and I stopped him.”

“A batarang would have done just as well.”

“But the gun was what made them ceasefire long enough for me to get a word in.”

“I don’t suppose you planned for that either.”

“Does it matter?”

Bruce frowned. Even without the cowl down, there was something about being in full Batman regalia that made him seem so much taller than the mere inches between them in height.

He probably wears lifts in those boots, Jason thought bitterly.

“Jason. This… ability of yours is starting to become a concern.”

“What the hell are you talking about.” It was a split second before he remembered the mics and cameras that had probably adorned every square inch of the manor the night of the Winter Gala. “You son of a bitch.”

“If what Talia said is true -”

“If what she said is true then I’ve had this my whole life,” Jason said. “And I’ve been fine.”

For a moment it felt like even the bats were giving him skeptical looks.

“I’m _fine_!” Jason insisted louder.

“As fine as you were when you purposefully injured yourself?” Bruce asked, his eyes hard.

Jason turned on Cass and gestured at the space between them. “You and I are going to have a serious talk about sibling confidentiality.”

“There will be terms.”

“ _Jason_. Whatever ability you possess is clearly of a different nature than Cassandra’s. If it poses a risk to you or others, we can’t ignore it as you continue to enter high-risk situations.”

“I know what this is about,” Jason said, helmet clutched tightly between his hands. “You want to think that this meta-whatever is to blame for all the times I’ve killed, just like you wanted to think the pit madness was to blame. But it’s not. I’ve always been the one making my own choices and whatever this is, it doesn’t change that.”

“I’ve already called someone,” Bruce said, his face stoic. “They’ll be arriving in Gotham this week to help you.”

“You-” Jason laughed in disbelief. “Of fucking course you did. Well it’s a waste of all our time because I told you, I can manage this _myself._ What the hell are they going to know about it that I don’t?”

“I’ve brought in an expert on the subject.”

Jason scoffed, turning away. “An expert, sure. Whatever.”

He made it all of five paces away before stopping short.

Wait.

“Bruce,” he said, calmly but with a warning tremor. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Jason-”

“No, no. I _know_ you didn’t. I know you didn’t do the thing I told _everyone_ from the very fucking beginning not to do!”

Jason didn’t feel the helmet drop from his hands but he heard the clatter of it upon the stone cave floor.

“It’s for you, Jason.” And Bruce’s eyes were so goddamn earnest it made his insides coil. “It’s for your safety.”

“My safe…” Jason’s words faded as he raked his hands over his face. “Oh my god you did it. I can’t fucking believe. I,”

He shook his head.

“How long was it,” he said roughly. “How long after you learned Shiva was my mother did you dig it out.”

A question Jason already knew the answer to.

“As soon as I heard.” Bruce’s voice was as deliberately impassive as ever. “He-”

“ _I don’t care who he is!”_ Jason snapped. “I wanted it left alone. I’d say that I can’t believe you’d do this, but. That’d be a lie. This is _so_ exactly like you.”

He scooped his helmet back up and made for his bike.

“Shut the doors on me this time and I’m coming back to run you over, old man.”

* * *

 

The cool night air did Jason’s head some good as he sat with one leg dangling over the building’s side. His back was pressed comfortingly against an old gargoyle as the minutes to dawn counted down.

The call came in on his helmet and he answered, however reluctantly.

“It was you, wasn’t it.”

“ _Hello to you too. Red Bat, is it?_ ” Oracle’s voice asked. “ _I bet that made Cass happy._ ”

“One of us should be.” Jason adjusted his position on the stone ledge. “Out with it then. I don’t suppose you were going to tell me what he was up to?”

“ _For what it’s worth, I told him he should have gotten you on board first,_ ” Oracle said.

“Fat chance.”

“ _Hm._ ” Oracle paused. _“... About your biological father. I don’t know what you might have thought, given his relationship with Shiva. But he’s not a bad man, Jason._ ”

“And you would know.”

“ _I would, actually. Do you want me to tell you?_ ”

Jason sighed, tilting his head back to gaze into the overcast skies above. Maybe there would be snow soon.

“I don’t have a choice anymore, do I. Not unless I want to be caught completely unprepared.”

There was a long silence, broken only by the low howl of high-altitude winds as they blew through the tallest of the city towers and high-rise buildings.

“ _His name is Richard Dragon. And he just might be the greatest martial artist in the world._ ”

* * *

 

Jason made a point of avoiding Bruce after that. He’d gotten better at giving the silent treatment in the past few years and was certain he could keep it up just as long as Bruce could keep up his stony ‘ignoring you ignoring me’ facade. It wasn’t worth holding out for an apology or a cancellation of the plans Bruce had made behind Jason’s back, but still.

He was sick and tired of being treated like his choices hadn’t counted, like they _still_ didn’t count. Like he constantly needed to be helped or fixed or cured of something because Bruce didn’t like what he was doing. He should’ve known better than to think the old man could leave well enough alone.

Jason lay in his room and stared up at the ceiling, cogs turning in his head. Bruce hadn’t even waited before prying; hadn’t even known yet about this apparent legacy Jason was carrying around in his genes.

In his hands Jason held the old photograph he and Cass had received from the dojo in Kyoto: three young students and their aging sensei.

_Bronze Tiger, Dragon, Paper Monkey._

Benjamin Turner, Richard Drakunovski, Sandra Wu-san.

Jason hadn’t originally spared much thought for the second boy in the picture, mostly because he hadn’t wanted to know. He still didn’t want to know.

Richard Dragon. A man who’d trained Bruce, Dick, Huntress, the first Question and even Barbara after she’d been disabled. Who was apparently so good at what he did that Lady Shiva had carried his child by choice. But if this guy was so great, why didn’t she leave Jason with him?

He sighed and slung an arm across his face. This was why he wanted to leave this whole mess behind him. All of these questions were meant to be laid to rest and buried in that hotel room in Toronto.

“Jason?” Cass gave a soft knock on the doorframe before poking her head in. “It’s time.”

“What if I don’t want to go.”

Cass frowned before coming to sit beside him on the bed.

“You are frustrated.”

“Yes.”

“And scared.”

“N- what would I be scared of.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Of what you might learn. That it will change how you see yourself.” She paused. “And that Bruce will never trust you.”

“As if he’s ever going to anyway.” Jason muttered. “Not with him actively looking for new reasons not to.”

“That is not how he sees it.”

“It never is.” He looked her in the eyes. “Do you think I need this?”

Cass worried her bottom lip.

“You let me hurt you, in Detroit. On purpose.”

“Yeah, but…”

“And I did not predict it. You moved and I did not _see_ ,” Cass said. “And I think… that if something _were_ to happen, that I would not be able to stop you. It scares me.”

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily.

“I’m not making any promises. I still think this is a huge waste of everyone’s time.”

Cass hugged him tightly and Jason accepted it, cursing every weak part of himself.

* * *

 

The drive to Old Gotham was silent.

Jason kept his arms folded across his hammering chest, trying and failing to not look like he wanted to get swallowed up by the car seat.

Dick had been camping out in the penthouse for months, but ever since the gala he’d unceremoniously begun living out of his old room. In the last week he’d volunteered to finally clean out the last of his stuff and offer the penthouse to their ‘guest’, but Jason suspected he was just being opportunistic about it. The entire debacle had made it easy for Dick to transition back under Bruce’s roof with minimal awkwardness, and Jason had to remember to call him on that debt someday.

The stony silence between Bruce and Jason continued for the whole journey, not breaking until they were in the elevator and halfway to the uppermost floor.

“Jason -”

“Don’t. I’m not interested in your reasons,” Jason said shortly, compulsively picking at the seams inside his pockets. “And don’t even try the whole ‘for your safety’ bit, you had your fingers prying into my business before you even had a reason.”

“I don’t need one to worry about your wellbeing,” Bruce said, similarly terse.

“Oh, so you don’t even think you need to justify invading my shit, is that right?”

“That’s not what I -”

_Ding._

Bruce took a steadying breath and led them to the double doors of the penthouse entrance.

“What’s he like?” Jason couldn’t help but blurt. “You knew him, right?”

“It was a long time ago.” Bruce paused. “He was… a good teacher.”

Which told him absolutely nothing. Jason huffed and forced his hand steady long enough to knock firmly.

A scant few moments later, and the door opened.

Richard Dragon looked Bruce’s age, maybe a few years older.

His hair was red, which was maybe the most surprising thing, but it had the same curl to it that Jason’s did. His eyes were the same shade of blue and even their shape was similar, as was the set of his jaw and curve of his nose. He was paler, taller and with broader shoulders, but. There was a resemblance far stronger than anything Jason could ever have had with Willis Todd.

Several long seconds passed and they only looked at each other.

Then Bruce cleared his throat.

“May we come in?” He asked tightly.

“Of course.” Dragon’s gaze didn’t waver as he stepped aside. “You must be Jason.”

“Um, yeah.” Jason cleared his throat as he narrowly avoided tripping over an entryway table.

“Richard.”

“Right. I mean, I know.” Jason shook his hand, which was rough from rugged mountain living.

Barbara had said that Dragon had more or less disappeared some twenty years back, cloistered up in the Canadian rockies where only a scarce few knew to find him. Jason couldn’t help but suddenly become hyperaware of the calluses on his own palms, the ones that could only be formed by years of frequent gunmanship. He already had Bruce and Shiva judging him over that, and the subtle downward flick of Dragon’s eyes told him there wasn’t much approval to be found here either.

Jason let go and shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Look, I’ll be honest. I really think this whole thing’s unnecessary,” he said.

Bruce sighed. “Jason-”

“What makes you say that?”

Jason blinked. Dragon was looking at him with genuine curiosity.

“Well. For starters I don’t like being fussed over and treated like I’m compromised. I feel the same as I ever did!”

“I see. So you’ve never won a fight or escaped a dangerous situation by completely accidentally doing the exact thing you needed to?”

Jason frowned. “Everyone has lucky days.”

“You’ve never acted without knowing why, and later learned that it corresponded with something you couldn’t have possibly known?”

“I have good instincts.”

“And you’ve never blacked out in a fight.”

“I’ve been knocked out before, sure.”

“I mean you’ve never been in a fight, one where you were likely outnumbered and outgunned, lost consciousness and then come to your senses as the last man standing?”

Jason shifted. “There was a very strange chapter of my life around my mid to late adolescence. But nothing like that’s happened since.”

“It didn’t happen to me at all until I was about twenty-five,” Dragon said. “I’m not here to make you do anything you don’t want to, Jason. And I certainly don’t want to make you uncomfortable. But since I’m here, if you’re willing, I don’t see the harm in teaching you some techniques. Just in case.”

Jason was quiet for a long moment as Dragon simply watched him patiently. He seemed sincere enough.

“… I guess.” He turned to Bruce, but to his surprise the man didn’t look pleased or satisfied - instead his eyes were steely and distant. “So I guess I’ll see you at the house, then?”

Bruce’s frown only intensified. “I’ll call you for an update later.”

“Yeah I bet you will.” Jason muttered as he walked him to the door.

For a second Bruce hesitated in the hall, half-turned like he had something to say.

“What?”

Bruce shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

Another moment later and he was across the hall to the elevator and gone.

Jason slowly shut the door, out of sorts for reasons he couldn’t name.

“Okay,” he said. “Where do we start?”

* * *

 

Fifteen minutes later and he was sitting on the floor of the penthouse gym with a tray of tea between him and one of the greatest fighters in the world… who also happened to be his biological father.

“So is this like. Magic tea?”

“If you consider apple blossom and honey magical. Which would be fair,” Dragon said pleasantly.

Jason didn’t know what to make of this guy. Aside from being in good shape there was nothing that implied he was the greatest male martial artist in the world, nor that he had ever been on any kind of positive terms with the likes of Lady Shiva.

Nor that he was for the first time seeing the son he hadn’t known existed for twenty-one years.

It was like Jason was just another student, and Dragon just another teacher. If this was kept up, maybe it wouldn’t be quite so painfully awkward after all.

“I’d like you to try and think back to your most recent incident. Can you describe it to me?” Dragon asked.

“I wouldn’t call it an incident. I was roughing up a gambling hall and stopped a guy who was running. There were a dozen different ways I could’ve done it, but only one that would’ve defused the situation totally. I didn’t even think about it. Just like when I let Cass take out my leg.” Jason sighed. “Everyone’s scared that I’m going to hurt somebody.”

“Or yourself, apparently.”

Jason waved a dismissive hand. “It’d just be easier for them to blame this for anything I’ve ever done wrong. And yeah, I had some… problems with self control a few years ago, for unrelated reasons. I thought this thing was part of that.”

“That’s understandable. My sensei called my ability the Dragon Within. It felt like a force within me had taken over: something stronger and more perceptive than myself that assumed control. It didn’t need thought or deduction - it simply knew what needed to be done and my body followed,” Dragon said. “For a good while I thought I just had a blackout temper.”

“You?”

Dragon seemed like he could’ve greeted the devil himself with a polite smile.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said, getting up to pick through the shelves of carefully sorted sparring weapons. “But even I was young once.”

“Sure, but. Isn’t that why you went to the temple in Kyoto?” Jason asked. “To learn control?”

“Uh, no,” Dragon said, tossing a pair of steel escrima to Jason. “I went to the temple to rob it.”

“You what the what?”

“I was fourteen,” he said like that explained everything, picking up one of Dick’s wingdings and turning it over in his hand. “These look fun.”

“What are we doing?” Jason asked, perking up at the notion of real training.

“Nothing too complicated,” Dragon said, looking around. “Any blindfolds around here?”

And that was how Jason wound up blindfolded and armed with two sticks, batting shuriken out of the air.

Bruce had taught them techniques on how to properly handle the batarangs: the ways to hold them so you didn’t slice your hand, how to throw them as noiselessly as possible… but in an enclosed, quiet indoor space like the gym it simply defied physics for the wingdings to come at him that silently.

“Christ,” Jason hissed under his breath as he scarcely deflected another projectile.

“Breathe. You’re too tense.”

“How relaxed am I supposed to be, exactly?”

 _Shing._ Another wingding clattered to the floor.

“You’re thinking too much.”

“I haven’t been stabbed yet, have I?”

_Clang._

“That’s only because you’re well-trained,” Dragon said. “Martial arts training makes our ability even more dangerous, but it can also help you to manage it.”

“How?”

“By being aware of yourself you can keep it from activating unintentionally. Steady your breathing. Relax. Anger and fear are the primary triggers that can lead to you doing something you’ll regret.”

Another wingding came at him from almost the opposite direction of Dragon’s voice. Jason felt it cut the air next to him as he narrowly dodged.

“You make it sound like we get possessed,” Jason said.

“It can feel that way, at its worst. When you enter that state you see things, know things that your conscious mind doesn’t register,” Dragon said. “Before your thoughts can catch up you’re already acting. You don’t know why you’re doing what you do, but it’s always what has to be done.”

“Done to what?”

“To win. To survive. To protect what you love most.”

 _Clang, clang._ Two wingdings this time, from utterly different directions. Was this guy telekinetic too? Straining to track Dragon’s footsteps and voice was useless.

“But I wouldn’t hurt an innocent person.” Jason insisted.

“You seem like someone who knows that innocence and guilt don’t exist in a binary,” Dragon said. “Mistakes can always be made.”

Jason took a deep steadying breath and adjusted his grip. He felt his pulse calm.

He still didn’t feel the next projectile coming until it was right on him, but it didn’t matter. Jason struck, deflecting it in a random direction. There was a deep, reverberating metallic bonging noise, followed by a slam and the sound of a blade burying into wood.

Jason straightened and removed the blindfold, blinking under the fluorescent lights.

He’d batted the wingding straight into the steel frame of the treadmill in the corner, causing it to rebound across the room and impale shut one of the weapons’ drawers in the wall unit.

“Welp.” Dragon made a half-hearted attempt at jostling the drawer of shuriken open. “Guess that’s that.”

“I,” Jason rotated in place, unsteadily tracing his finger through the air in the treadmill’s direction. “I didn’t know that was there.”

“You didn’t remember it consciously, maybe. But you know the layout of this room.”

“It wasn’t on purpose.” Jason moved his finger to the sealed wingdings drawer. “I did not do that on purpose.”

“No?”

“No!” Jason ran a hand through his hair. “Who the hell would even -“

He rubbed a hand over his face. It was ridiculous.

“You look like you could use some more tea.”

* * *

 

“I didn’t hit you, though,” Jason said, staring into his cup. “So it can’t be that bad, right? It activated and I took a nonviolent option.”

They were back in the sitting room. The mess in the gym had been picked up while the tea was brewing, but the split in the drawer was beyond fixing.

“The nonviolent option was the effective one. Attacking me wouldn’t have amounted to anything.”

“Well aren’t you modest.” Jason rolled his eyes as he sipped the fragrant tea.

The corner of Dragon’s mouth quirked upwards before his expression sobered.

“I know it’s not what you want to hear Jason, but your ability is dangerous. It’s not mindless, but left uncontrolled there is risk for accidental casualties.”

“You sound like you would know.”

“I might.” Dragon leaned back in the leather sofa. “I’m told you met Ben.”

“Yeah. He’s running a dojo out in Detroit.”

“That’s good. We ran one ourselves in New York, for a while. A long time ago,” Dragon said. “You know that back in the day we used to freelance for the C.B.I.?”

Central Bureau of Intelligence. It’d been Amanda Waller’s show ever since Luthor became president.

“You were an agent?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. More like… circumstances would force us to join forces with the C.B.I. on occasion in order to help or protect people in need. Eventually we came to blows with the League of Assassins.”

Jason put his cup back down on the table.

“People were hurt. Ben’s fiance was killed and he went after them alone for revenge. That was the last I saw of him for a while, and when I finally found him he was… different.”

“He’d become the Bronze Tiger.” Jason’s time with Talia had given him a decent understanding of ninja history.

“Ben had his demons and the League knew how to exploit that. I tracked him down and found him with a man called Barney Ling, the head of a global agency that was really a puppet organization under the League. The Bronze Tiger had been outsourced to him, following his orders mindlessly. My friend came at me with intent to kill and… well.” Dragon folded his hands and rested them on one knee. “I didn’t think about or decide to push Ling out the window. It didn’t even occur to me that killing him would remove Ben’s reason for fighting me. I just did it.”

The room suddenly felt colder. Jason swallowed.

“Okay. So what you’re telling me is that basically we have some kind of hyper intuition… but instead of cool body-reading powers, I lose myself to some kind of violent blood rage?”

“It’s bit more precise than the term ‘blood rage’ allows, but -“

Jason gave a bewildered laugh, hands clapped over his face.

“You can’t tell Bruce about this. Absolutely not.”

“Jason -”

“Just, just tell him I want to talk to him about it myself okay? That’ll keep him off your back.” Jason sighed heavily. “I need to get a handle on this asap. He’ll never let me see the light of day again if I don’t. How did you do it?”

“I’ve found that with time, hard work and peaceful living-“

“ _Peaceful?_ ” Jason’s mouth opened and shut around half-formed words before he gave up and clenched his eyes shut. “That was when it happened, right. After you killed that guy and Turner ran off, that’s when you disappeared off the face of the earth. Your powers scared you that bad?”

“It was more than that,” Dragon said calmly. “All around me people were getting hurt. My students, my friends, even those that had only the most tangential of relations to me.”

“But you were untouchable,” Jason said, echoing Talia’s words. “Right?”

“I couldn’t protect everyone. I couldn’t save Ben from himself,” Dragon said. “It’s like I told Vic, like I told Helena. Some fights can’t be won. They tear you apart and turn you into the thing you hate.”

“I don’t accept that,” Jason said as he stood up. “All fights can be won. Maybe you’ll need help, maybe you’ll need tools, or time. And good on you for doing what was best for you, if going into the mountains was it. But walking away isn’t an option for me. It’s not who I am.”

Dragon looked at Jason appraisingly.

“You really do remind me of her, in some ways.”

Jason faltered. “I. I’ve got to get ready for patrol. But I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”

He pulled on his jacket and made for the exit, his whole body feeling somehow heavier than it had when he entered.


	2. Chapter 2

Jason could feel the awkward silence drop around him as entered the cave. The fading of conversations and sudden fascination everyone had with their patrol prep were pretty hard to ignore.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and headed over to where his suit was stored.

“Jason.”

Even after all this time he still felt that sudden tension in his back; the telltale tingle in his spine that heralded Batman materializing directly behind him.

“Bruce,” he said in return as he opened his locker.

“You didn’t pick up your phone.”

“I was already on my way back, it didn’t feel like a big deal.”

A long moment of stony silence.

“And?” Batman asked, sounding strained. “How was it.”

Jason turned around, idly passing his helmet back and forth between his hands.

“It was… fine.”

Batman’s cowl stared back.

“Fine?”

“Yeah, I mean. I’ve got some kind of super reflexes or something and he’s teaching me how to, you know. Use it on purpose,” Jason said smoothly. “We get along well enough and I’m gonna stick with it. Just like you wanted, right?”

Seconds passed and Jason was sure he was caught - that Bruce had already called Dragon and the guy had been too damn noble not to spill the beans.

“I see,” Batman said finally, slowly. “That’s… I’m glad.”

There was another beat of mutual staring. Finally he wordlessly turned and made for the Batmobile, cape billowing behind him.

Jason watched him go, brow furrowed slightly. Was that it? He may have gotten better about lying to Bruce in recent years, but it was still hard to believe it could be that easy.

He made a note to be more careful as he cast his gaze across the cave. The others quickly avoided his eyes and busied themselves like they hadn’t been keenly watching the exchange. Only Dick was openly staring after Bruce, his mouth in a hard line.

It didn’t surprise Jason when he finished changing into his suit and emerged to find Dick waiting for him by the vehicles in an otherwise empty cave.

“Cass ditched me?”

“I told her to go on ahead,” Dick said, leaning against the hood of the Nightbird. “I thought that you and I could hang out tonight.”

“Hang out.” Jason repeated, because he knew a trap when he saw one. “For what, coffee?”

“More like patrol through Otisburg, but if you want coffee too -“

Jason scoffed and locked his helmet into place before climbing on his motorcycle. He was done wasting time here.

“If you want to tag along with me, it’s whatever. But I’m not riding shotgun in your birdmobile.”

“Great,” Dick said with cheer that Jason didn’t buy for a second. “I’m right behind you.”

To his mild surprise Dick really did manage to stay right behind him all the way across the north island despite the half-hearted attempts made to lose him. Jason quietly resolved to sneak a peek under that car’s hood later and see just how he’d put her together.

They stashed their rides just off of the Hill, Dick climbing out of the Nightbird with an air that Jason definitively identified as smug.

It felt like the start of a long night.

He did his best to go about his usual patrol routine, but Dick had the infuriating talent of versatility. Probably honed from years of leading and working with numerous teams over the years, Dick knew how to adapt and work even with grudging partners.  

It wasn’t long before the pair of them wordlessly fell into rhythm together: Red Bat busting a contraband exchange and Nightwing interrogating the dealer, Nightwing chatting with and patching up sex workers while Red Bat roughed up their abusive pimp, the pair of them stopping a gang mugging and planting a tracker on the single guy they’d allowed to escape.

They tailed that little blinking dot across the mid-rise rooftops and towards Aparo Park, all the way to a seedy bar just off the docks. Across the street they settled atop a dingy motel while Dick called up Oracle for a check on bar’s ownership. It was as small-time as it got, but from there they could follow each affiliation to the top of the gang’s food chain.

After hanging up Dick leaned leisurely against one of the rooftop heating pumps.

“Nice night, huh?”

Jason glanced around. Gotham City in the winter stood against thick overcast skies like a nightmare, the northern island in particular looming dark and proud and ankle-deep in its own filth.

“I beat up a pimp, so. I’d say it’s at least average,” Jason said cautiously. “Are you going to tell me what all of this is about already? Because small talk’s never been our thing.”

Dick drummed his fingers on the hollow-sounding metal. “I just wondered if you wanted to talk. Things have been pretty wild for you lately.”

“O-kay.” Jason laughed dismissively. “I _so_ did not come out with you to stand in the cold and have one of Nightwing’s patented heart-to-hearts. I’m fine. In fact, I’m pretty sick of everyone assuming I’m _not_.”

Dick looked at him calmly. “I’m not asking if you’re compromised, Red. I’m just saying that if there’s something on your mind, you can trust me. It’s great how you and Black Bat have become such a team, but talking things out and having it all read off of you aren’t the same. Between Shiva and Talia and now your biodad being in town, it’d be a hell of a lot for anybody.”

Jason leveled him with a suspicious look.

“There’s nothing to say,” he said. “It just is what it is. I’m dealing with it.”

“You don’t have to deal with it alone.”

“Why not? It’s what I’m good at,” Jason said sharply. “All that practice, and all.”

He could feel Dick’s eyes narrowing behind his mask, his head tilting slightly as he kept Jason’s gaze.

“You know that I -“

“Oh my god, I do _not_ want you to be sorry!” Jason snapped.

“No. You want to drive me away by making me upset. I’m something of an expert on the tactic.” Dick sighed. “Look if you want space that’s fine. If you don’t want to talk to me specifically, that’s also fine. I’m just putting myself out there.”

Jason huffed, looking determinedly elsewhere. “Great, thanks. Anything else?”

A pause.

“Yeah. Word’s spread around about Black Bat’s new brother. They’re calling you two the ‘Bat Twins’,” Dick said. “And they’ve noticed you’re not squeamish about guns.”

“So?”

“You’ve got the whispers that you and Red Hood are the same person, for a start,” Dick said. “And I expect they’ll keep growing.”

“No one can prove anything. Your precious relationship with the police should be fine,” Jason said. “All else fails just use some brainwashing excuse. You guys sure love that one, don’t you.”

“Whatever mess of miscommunication is happening between you and Batman is nothing to do with me,” Dick said dryly, eyebrow raised. “But all the same maybe lay off the guns for a while? And I say that coming from a totally strategic place.”

“Yeah I bet you do,” Jason said blandly. “I mean that’s what this all comes down to, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I _mean_ , Batman’s first and foremost agenda is and always has been keeping me under _control_ ,” Jason said, enunciating each word as he stated the obvious. “I’m not delusional or an idiot, Nightwing.”

Dick stared at him almost disbelievingly. Then, slowly, a tight expression overtook his features; a narrowing of his eyes and faint frowning of his mouth.

“I see.”

“Do you?”

“Oh yeah.”

Dick was looking sternly into some middle distance now, index finger tapping his thigh in thought. It was actually a little unsettling.

“Well. Good,” Jason said. “So we’re done here.”

Dick said nothing, but his eyes focused on Jason for a brief second that made him feel downright uneasy. Then the moment passed and Dick’s expression was neutral and friendly again.

“You haven’t even told me about how the training’s going,” he said. “I was taught by Dragon for a short while too, you know. He’s the real deal.”

“Yeah.” Jason shifted. “Training’s been fine. I’ve just been focused on getting the job done.”

Meaning he’d been making every effort not to think about any of that other stuff. Not that it was easy.

“I know there’s not much normal about the situation, but I think it’d be completely natural to not know how to feel,” Dick said gently.

“I don’t want to _feel_ anything. I didn’t want him here at all, especially not because Batman decided to take my business into his own hands again.”

“But he is here. It must not be the easiest thing.”

Jason shrugged. “Like I said, it’s going fine. Maybe I just didn’t expect him to be so…”

“Nice?”

It wasn’t even a matter of pessimism. Who within their right mind would have thought that the legendary Richard Dragon, childhood friend of Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva, would be _nice?_ The more he thought about it the more bizarre the relationship between Dragon and Shiva seemed.

It was also making it hard for Jason to comprehend that he wasn’t actually an orphan. His two biological parents were out there, alive and… well. He’d be lying if he said he understood much about either of them.

“Batman offered to pay him, you know. For coming out and helping you,” Dick said. “Dragon turned it down. He didn’t ask for proof that you were his or anything. Just looked at your picture and said he’d be on his way here.”

Jason breathed evenly through the filter of his mask, hands folded across his chest.

“Oracle already gave me the glowing review, okay. Said I could call up Huntress if I wanted another testimonial.”

“Well I don’t have anything quite as profound as they do. Batman sent me to him and that’s where I took to escrima. He was great teacher. He had his own demons that led him to his life in solitude, but -“

“You know that he’s killed.” Jason stated.

Dick nodded. “We wouldn’t have called him over before looking into his history.”

“Of _course_ not."

“Why do you have to go and turn everything into some insult on you? Is it so hard to believe that we care about your wellbeing?” Dick made a frustrated noise. “I mean geez, Batman wouldn’t have sent _me_ to him back then without being sure of the guy.”

Jason huffed but didn’t argue the point.

“All I’m getting at is that if you’re afraid to trust Dragon, I think you’re pretty safe. He’s been in solitude for years, he has no agenda and hasn’t had one since he and Bronze Tiger parted ways.”

“And you’re telling me this why?”

“Oh for crying out loud.” Dick visibly rolled his eyes behind his mask. “You’re impossible, you know that? I don’t _know_ okay, I don’t know what you want or if _you_ even know. I’m just trying to tell you that if there’s something you want - from me, from Dragon, whatever - you don’t need to hesitate.”

Jason was very past done with whole conversation.

“And about Batman -“

“No, no, nothing about Batman.” Jason had his hands up now. “I’ve let you talk at me enough without going there.”

“Okay,” Dick said easily. “Sure.”

Jason was already vaulting over the side of the roof, getting a head start to his bike. He was beyond ready to give losing Nightwing another try.

* * *

 

The next lesson with Dragon was unfortunately not as exciting as the first. Instead of sparring with flying sharp objects, Jason found himself sitting on the floor trying to “find his center”.

For all his teachers and all his travels, meditation was one thing he’d never been able to really get right.

“And this will help me… how?” Jason asked carefully.

“When your ability activates, your conscious mind is silenced. As you become more attuned with those mental shifts, it will be easier for you to identify and control them,” Dragon said calmly.

“Okay. The power turns my mind off.” Jason paused. “Is that why… Cass’ doesn’t work on me?”

He didn’t know why he was dancing around the use of Shiva’s name, but ever since Toronto the woman felt like a topic he would never be wholly comfortable breaching.

“She has the power to read and anticipate body language in a way that borders telepathy as well as precognition,” Dragon said. “But what we do is not thought, planned nor strategized, nor is it motivated by emotion. It’s pure, spontaneous action.”

That explained why Dragon and Shiva were so closely matched. His power worked on her, but hers didn’t on him.

“At this point your mother is undoubtedly better trained than me,” Dragon said casually even as Jason almost bit through his own tongue. “But she’s had no real practice fighting without her advantage. She visits me sometimes, but I’m afraid she doesn’t like to be in my presence for very long.”

“Oh.” Jason coughed. “I see.”

“Do you want to talk about her?”

The question was so unbelievably sincere. The idea that Dragon would actually want to openly talk about something so personal was itself throwing Jason through a loop.

Suddenly the room felt a bit more stifling and it was utterly beyond him as to why.

“Um. Can we go outside, maybe?”

Outside wound up being the penthouse balcony, sat at a table overlooking the covered pool. The winter air was thin and sharp so high above the rest of the city, but the sun was actually out and took the edge off somewhat.

For a minute Jason just looked out across the skyline, not sure what to say.

“I met Turner in Detroit,” he said finally. “You guys all grew up together?”

“Not quite,” Dragon said, sunlight bringing out the same faint freckles that Jason had. “Sandra and Carolyn left the dojo as children. Ben knew her then, but I didn’t come around until a few years later.”

“When you tried to rob the place.”

“That’s right.” There wasn’t an ounce of shame or reluctance in Dragon’s tone, just the same pleasant politeness as always. “Sandra came back when she was about nineteen. Carolyn was gone. She wanted to remake herself, but the sensei wasn’t able to train or fight her the way she wanted.”

“But you could?”

Dragon shrugged. “I was still figuring out my gift. I suppose you could say we helped each other by training together. Eventually it wasn’t enough and she aimed to leave again, for new countries and new teachers. When I saw her a few years later, she was calling herself Lady Shiva.”

“And she never said anything about me.”

“No,” Dragon said, eyes softening. “We were still young and my life wasn’t exactly stable at the time, but. I don’t know why she wouldn’t have told me. All that time we were traveling and working together, and she didn’t even hint at it.”

There was a moment of silence. Jason leaned back in his chair, head tilted to watch a plane pass overhead.

“Did you love her?” He asked, voice neutral and controlled.

“Yes.” The simplicity of Dragon’s response might have been what affected him most.

Jason had never planned on actually talking about any of this. Leave the past where it belongs, right? Catharine had been his mom, and as much as it twisted him up inside he could finally accept she was gone and he’d never have that back. Shiva, Sandra, whatever - she didn’t matter. So why the fuck was it so hard for him to think about her?

“I found her when I was fifteen,” Jason said. “When I was looking for my biological mother. I asked if it was her and she said no.”

Dragon didn’t visibly react. “I won’t make excuses for her, Jason. But I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Jason blinked. These days apologies only pissed him off, because they usually came in the context of people wishing they could change the past. Everyone was always wishing they had done something different to keep Jason from turning out the way he did.

Genuine sympathy devoid of pity or regret was. New.

“When I talked to Shiva in Toronto, she said I was born too soon after Cass. Her arrangements to have me moved got put on hold while I was monitored, so when the doctor had to leave the country I wound up adopted by her contact and his wife in Gotham. I don’t know where she originally planned on sending me.” Jason sighed and it eased some of the weight off his chest. “I don’t think she even cared.”

“I can’t pretend to know everything about how her mind works,” Dragon said. “But one thing I know is that she believes in fate. And legacy. Wherever life wound up taking you, you can be sure she would have found her way to you eventually.”

“Maybe. I don’t know how much Bruce told you, but I guess you can read it in the papers. Talia al Ghul, she’s. She looked after me for a while. Even made a deal with Shiva for my safety.” Jason rubbed his face tiredly. “I don’t know Shiva well enough, so you tell me. Is that the end?”

Dragon looked at Jason for a long moment. “No. With you inheriting my gift, it is extremely unlikely that your mother would keep her distance indefinitely.”

“But she doesn’t know.”

“If she doesn’t know, she suspects. And if she suspects, she will be close to finding out for herself,” Dragon said solemnly. “And that is _not_ something I can keep a secret for you, Jason.”

Jason gripped the armrests of his chair. “She said she wanted you to kill her. But you won’t do it, right? So I’m the backup.”

It shouldn’t have been any sort of surprise. That’s really all Jason and Cass had ever been to Shiva. Accidents or bartering chips, saved only for the functions they could serve later - her killer and her heir, respectively.

“What about her deal with Talia?” Jason asked. “She wouldn’t break that.”

“Do you know the exact terms of that deal?”

“…No.”

“And you don’t have the means of finding out.”

Jason shook his head. He and Talia were still on the outs, maybe indefinitely. The more he thought about her the more angry and confused he felt. For all the reasons he had to be pissed at Bruce, Talia’s attempts to keep them apart were not alright.

Manipulating him was one thing, something he had even expected from the start, but the lies had finally stacked up too high for him to overlook. There may have been a part of him that would always be grateful to her - that was sick and weak for the fact that she’d wanted him so badly - but he couldn’t let it go on anymore. He at least needed time.

Going crawling to her for information about Shiva was not only setting himself up to be lied to, but he honestly didn’t trust himself not to forgive her if she swung enough care or well-picked words his way.

“Sandra is an honorable woman, in her own way. She follows a code. But there are things she wants more than anything.”

“There are plenty of ways to die,” Jason said wryly.

“It’s a warrior’s death that she wants. To be the best, and be killed in a fair fight by someone better. The older she gets, the more anxious and desperate she’ll become,” Dragon said. “I’ve been her first choice for a while but she’s been searching for alternatives. And you’ve already displayed a willingness to kill.”

Jason frowned down at the table, looking soberly at his hands.

Shiva was a murderer. She’d undoubtedly taken innocent lives - forced who knew how many good people into battles to the death. He wondered if she even kept track of them all.

Assuming he had the skill to... could he do it? Shiva was no mother to him. He’d be giving her what she wanted and ridding the world of its most deadly assassin. There shouldn’t have been anything holding him back.

“And I suppose you have opinions,” Jason said, changing the subject. “About what I’ve done.”

“Everyone has opinions,” Dragon said. “Judgments are something I try to live without.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed. The vague zen thing was something _he_ could do without.

“I know you don’t like that I use guns.”

“What I do or don’t like doesn’t matter,” Dragon said. “I’m aware enough to understand that what guns mean to me are one thing, and what they mean to you could be something completely different.”

Jason felt his eyebrows raise slightly.

His reasons were nothing profound. He took up guns to stick it to Bruce. to give the middle finger to everything the man stood for with all his rules and codes of conduct. To show him that his way wasn’t the only way and that the things he so demonized could in fact be used for good.

“As far as giving the benefit of the doubt, that’s pretty excessive.”

Dragon shrugged, a hint of a smile on his face. “Well, you seem like someone who’s lived a lot of life. Whatever decisions you’ve made, I’m sure you had reasons. You don’t need to explain them to me.”

“Hm.” Jason looked Dragon over. “… But you still don’t approve of the guns.”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

Jason sighed. “Well that’s three out of four of you.”

* * *

 

The aftermath of the news regarding Shiva was pretty much what Jason expected.

“You’re not pulling me from patrol,” he said plainly as he adjusted the straps of his armor. “We made a deal, and it pretty explicitly says that you’re not my boss.”

Bruce made a frustrated sound, cowl down and gauntlets off to the side as he stood at the Batcomputer’s keyboard.

“Jason. It is highly likely that Lady Shiva monitors Richard Dragon’s comings and goings. He has been here for long enough that it must be clear to her that you have his meta gene.”

“Not necessarily. He could be here for any number of reasons,” Jason said flippantly. “For all she knows we’re having father-son bonding up in there.”

Bruce said nothing, his eyes unmoving as he stared at the glowing screen before him.

“… We should err on the side of caution,” he said finally, his voice stiff. “How is your training progressing?”

“Fine. Why?”

Jason was still complete garbage at meditation. However with the various exercises they were also doing it was getting easier to sense when his ‘inner dragon’ or whatever was about to take over. The shift from conscious thought to automatic action was becoming more familiar, he just couldn’t figure out how to turn it on or off.

“The longer Dragon is here the less inconspicuous the situation becomes.”

Jason gave a disbelieving laugh. “It’s barely been a week. You summoned the guy all the way from the rockies to come out here and now you can’t wait to have him gone?”

“He made it clear that it is only a matter of time before Shiva comes for you. Now that your leg is fully recovered, there’s no telling when she’ll make her move.”

“Yeah, so maybe having around the one guy who can actually defeat her is a good thing!”

Bruce’s hands tightly gripped the edge of the console.

“We are _perfectly_ capable of protecting you ourselves.”

“Oh for crying out loud.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Like you said, it’s a matter of time. She could show up tomorrow or five years from now. We don’t know. Yanking me off patrol - which, keep dreaming if you think you can - is going to do fuck all. She knows who we all are.”

“I am merely trying to take steps to ensure your safety,” Bruce said, finally turning from the computer to fix Jason with a steely glare. “Tempting fate -“

“Fate has been pretty thoroughly tempted already, I think,” Jason said coolly. “We don’t know the first thing about what she’s doing or the threat she poses. What would you do, keep me home forever?”

They stared each other down, Jason daring Bruce’s eyes to reveal that he did indeed want to do just that.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared behind them.

“If you guys are done?” Dick was standing at the edge of the scene, hands disapprovingly on his hips. “Look Bruce, Jason’s right. Taking him off patrol isn’t going to solve anything.”

“And you couldn’t if you trie-“ Dick silenced Jason with a sharp look.

“But we shouldn’t just carry on like it’s nothing either.” He continued. “Red Bat and I are working a drug trafficking case already. In the meantime, Red Robin and Black Bat can start putting some feelers out and see what activity there is in the assassin community.”

Bruce’s eyes were grey and cold. “Dick-”

“ _You_ can oversee the investigation. I think we can all agree that Talia isn’t the most trustworthy source to consult, especially when it comes to Shiva and Jason,” Dick said, ignoring the sudden spike in tension. “So maybe you should see what you can dig up on her role in particular.”

“... You’ve given this some thought.”

“Of course I have.” Dick’s expression defrosted by a few degrees. “You know he’ll be safe with me, Bruce.”

Jason could not believe his own ears.

“ _Babysitting_ me is your solution?” He demanded. “Because that always goes _so_ well.”

Dick regarded him with a stony gaze.

“Try to give me the slip and we’ll see what happens, little wing.”

Jason actually felt himself shrink back slightly before he remembered himself. Dick turned to Bruce, apparently satisfied.

“Does that work for you?”

Bruce’s jaw was so tight it was a wonder they couldn’t hear it creaking at the hinges.

“It is… serviceable,” he said. “For now.”

Like it was up to him.

Jason chewed irritably on the inside of his cheek. He didn’t appreciate any of this, frankly, but if it meant he was free to do what he’d been planning to anyway, well. He could live with Bruce being an ass in the background, per usual. Up until it became an inconvenience anyway.

At that point the gloves came off.

* * *

 

Jason didn’t know what Dick had meant with that threat down in the cave. Maybe he hadn’t meant anything. Even so something still kept him from fully calling that bluff.

Instead he lurked around in Dick’s periphery as they worked, acting out a routine that was surprisingly similar to what he’d done with Bruce years ago. Testing limits, seeing where the boundaries were. How far was too far, and how much he could push it before he yielded a response.

Even through the mask Jason could feel Dick’s eyes on him, and when they weren’t he could sense Dick tracking his movements. Interesting.

Their activities involved a fairly standard takedown of an illicit drug ring. Only because this was Gotham, the drugs in question were far from garden variety: experimental, dangerous new concoctions that would inevitably find their way into the hands of kids that didn’t know better. It was the sort of thing he’d have gone on a spree for as Red Hood.

Instead he was grappling across rooftops with Dick, following an armored vehicle in the streets below.

The gangs messing around in the Hill had led them to a gaggle of drug dealers in Otisburg, and then to a supplier in Burnley. Each source followed to the next, with hopefully this one being the final lead to the boys on top.

The car eventually pulled to a stop outside a mid-tier nightclub. They camped atop a neighboring rooftop, Jason half-listening as Dick rattled the address off to Oracle.

“Alright. So it turns out the Sokolov gang owns the place,” Dick said, joining Jason at the edge.

“Who?”

“Russian. New players. A whole bunch of little operations like theirs have been cropping up since Black Mask went down,” Dick said.

Jason scowled beneath his helmet, feeling the same simmering bitterness he felt whenever he was reminded of the months of time he’d been forced to spend off the streets.

“Right. And let me guess, Oracle’s already in their security system?”

“She’ll keep an eye on them, let us know the best way to infiltrate and find the next place in the chain. If she sees where they keep anything incriminating, we can go to Gordon to order a search.”

Jason grunted in response. He knew how it worked: everything getting done in accordance to the system. Evidence found with warrants, testimonies given without duress. Shit that would hold up in _court_.

Dick must have sensed the tension in Jason’s shoulders because he was looking at him with grim concern.

“You know why we have to do it this way,” Dick said. “This is how we’re allowed to do what we do without being hunted as criminals. Working with the police, with the city.”

“I don’t need the speech from you too,” Jason said.

“Ethics aside, this is the logical thing.” Dick continued firmly. “It’s safer for everyone. One mistake, one innocent death on your hands and do you think anything else you do will matter?”

“I’m not an idiot, I don’t make mistakes like that.”

“Everybody makes mistakes, little wing. Eventually.” Dick sighed. “You have to understand -“

“Why the hell do I have to understand anything?” Jason demanded. “I made the deal, I’m not killing in Gotham. You don’t have to bend over backwards to try and change my views. What’s it matter if I think your rules are bullshit?”

“Because I want you back in this family. We all do.”

“Who is this mysterious ‘all’ you’re referring to?” Jason asked. “You’ve got some ideas about playing happy families, fine. Black Bat’s made her feelings clear too, so fair enough. And Batgirl’s alright but with everyone else it’s at best a truce.”

Dick gave him a look that Jason could only describe as pitying - only it wasn’t the rage-inducing ‘poor thing’ brand of pity that was worth decking him for, but rather the sort of sympathy you give someone for being especially dense.

“What time do you typically fall asleep?”

Jason blinked, momentarily stunned by the sudden change of topic.

“Pardon?”

“Your room usually goes dark pretty soon after patrol,” Dick said, like that explained anything. “So I imagine you crash quickly enough.”

“I don’t have trouble sleeping at night because of raging guilt, if that’s what you’re on about,” Jason said skeptically. “What are you -“

“Try to stay up a little, if you can,” Dick said. “After your light’s out.”

Was this some kind of riddle? Jason opened his mouth to retort, but they were both cut off by Oracle’s voice crackling into their ears.

 _“So sorry to interrupt,_ ” she said dryly. _“But if you kids could direct your attention to the back alley behind the club, that’d be great._ ”

The two of them moved to view the club from the rear where a van was freshly parked. A group of men talking in rough Russian were opening its back doors and a bound man was hauled out from within, shouting through a gag.

“Finally something interesting.”

Without another word Jason was descending down upon the scene, landing smoothly on the pavement. With a swift kick he immediately sent one of the armed men crashing into a set of bins.

“Hang on a sec, will you.” Jason rolled the bound man back into the van before delivering a harsh backhand to the other thug that’d been holding him.

“Easy,” Dick said, disarming another one of the men with a fluid movement and jamming the door to the club shut with a wingding.

“Don’t you even start.”

Jason grabbed another guy by the neck and slammed him against the alley wall, feeling hands scrabble uselessly against his armor.

“Wait-” Goon #3 choked, pounding weakly on Jason’s forearm. “Please! We haven’t -“

“Haven’t what?” Jason drawled. “Haven’t killed that guy in the back yet?”

“It’s just business,” he said desperately. “And we haven’t dealt to any kids, I swear!”

Jason’s grip loosened somewhat.

“Kids.”

“Yeah, you know.” Goon’s eyes shifted back and forth uneasily. “We weren’t gonna - we weren’t gonna risk it. Not with…”

He trailed off and it still spoke volumes. The alley was quiet now, and Jason could feel Dick’s sharp eyes on him.

“Well,” He cleared his throat. “Good to know.”

Jason knocked the man's head back against the brick and Dick watched as he fell into a heap on the ground.

“... He thought you were going to kill him.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe I wanted to.”

“I mean he treated you like Red Hood.” Dick’s fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“Does it make that big a difference?” Jason nodded at the van. “Go get your statement then, Nightwing. Bet we could barter some kind of testimony out of him, work in the _system,_ right? Never mind that he’s probably from a rival cartel and just as dirty as the rest of them.”

Dick huffed tiredly as he went to address the hostage.

“Let’s get out of here. It’s too close to their operation,” he said, pulling the man to his feet but pointedly leaving his hands bound. “Oracle’s sending the car over.”

Which was how a mere ten minutes later Jason found himself miserably riding shotgun in Dick’s Nightbird.

“You’re the worst.” He sullenly propped one boot on the dashboard. “And you drive like an old man.”

“I stopped at the red light so I’m an old man?” Dick slapped Jason’s foot down. “Behave or I won’t let you look at her engine. I know you want to.”

“Hmph." Jason half turned to open the soundproof window separating them from the back seat. “And how’re you doing, sunshine?”

A tirade of Italian profanity was the response. If Jason had been driving, this is when he’d have given the steering wheel a quick jerk - but of course Dick had buckled their guest in.

“Oh, simmer down. Some people are _so_ ungrateful.”

“If you think you can kill me without consequence, you are wrong!” The man spat in heavily accented English. “My family is not like these dogs you have brought to our doorstep!”

“Excuse me?” Jason asked, idly scraping dried blood off his gauntlet from where he’d backhanded that other guy’s nose.

“This is all your doing! At least with Black Mask, everyone knew their place. Now thanks to you, these upstart gangs are crawling out of the alleys like rats! Into our territory, territory we’ve held for generations, to take our money and attack our men!"

“I think you have me confused with someone else,” Jason said. “Considering how you’re still breathing right now, I’d have thought that was obvious.”

The man gave a harsh laugh. “We have heard. The Red Hood, prodigal bird who flew home. Did the Bat so easily pardon you after you renounced your ways? Or did you have to beg first?”

“Who the f-“ Jason was cut off as Dick reached back and slammed the window shut.

“Forget about him. We’ve got bigger problems than Red Hood’s reputation.”

“It’s my reputation if they think I’m him!”

“And it’s better to prove them wrong about that, isn’t it?” Dick said shortly.

“Why are you so hung up on it? Like I said, they can’t prove anything and there’s a million different things we can tell the police if they catch wind of it.”

“Maybe it’s not the police I’m worried about.”

“Who then? Him?” Jason jabbed his thumb towards the back seat. “Big deal.”

“The spectacle around you is big enough already. The last thing we need is for everything to stack up on us.” Dick shook his head minutely, eyes intense and locked straight ahead. “It would have been better if people thought Hood left town. Been driven out, or relocated, or anything else. Maybe we should have staged something, but there was so much going on-”

“Driven out? Christ, I’d have preferred to have died in that fire. _Allegedly_ , ease up.” Jason said, scoffing at the dirty look Dick shot him. “At least that would have been a dignified end.”

“No. The Gotham underworld was already convinced you were Robin. If you’d died, they would have known it by Batman’s subsequent behavior.”

“What, adopting a new kid?” Jason muttered under his breath, arms folded across his chest.

He could hear Dick’s gloves tightening around the steering wheel.

“Look, whatever. Red Hood doesn’t exist anymore, I get it. But it was through no fault of my own and definitely not because I went groveling for dad’s forgiveness,” Jason said with disgust. “Not like he’s ever apologized to me for shit.”

Dick sighed quietly.

“Something to say?”

He shrugged. “Not really. Sometimes I just don’t know what to do with you two.”

* * *

 

A short while later and they were standing atop the GCPD station, the gangster having already been hauled from the backseat and handed off to the bewildered officers at the front desk.

It’d been years since Jason had seen Commissioner Gordon up close, and the man looked both older and exactly the same. Same haircut, same mustache, same worn trenchcoat and stoic expression. Everything was just a little more grey, a little more weathered.

“Well once he stops shouting in Italian, I think we can figure something out,” The Commissioner was saying, tie catching slightly in the wind. “We ran his prints and he’s got a rap sheet as long as my arm, but without a warrant or charges he won’t be here long.”

“It’s not about an arrest, but information,” Dick said. “He was abducted by the Sokolov gang to their place in Burnley. It could be the way in for attaining a search warrant of the place. And if he talks, there’s a lot of light he could shed on the territory struggles that are happening right now.”

“ _If_ he talks,” Gordon said.

“He’d be incriminating his family’s enemies. Deal with him and he should,” Dick said.

“But he’s going to get off free,” Jason said, drawing attention to the patch of shadow he was standing in. “Right?”

Dick gave him a solemn look. “He’s from the Panessa family. We deal with the mess from all of these small gangs first, then we can see about the established factions. If the upstarts are getting bold enough to grab one of the older mobsters, it’s a topic of concern.”

“But they’re not bold enough to deal to kids, are they?” Jason asked flatly.

A frosty wind blew between them.

Gordon cleared his throat. “Red Bat, I assume. It’s sure getting hard to keep track of you kids - someone told me Black Bat had a twin and I thought I'd missed one. You new on the scene, son?”

“Sort of,” Dick said, still stern. “This is my little brother. He’s going to be working with us.”

“Little, right.” Gordon gave Jason the once-over. “You’re local?”

As Jason Head he was forced to keep his natural Gothamite accent completely out of his voice, but as Red Bat he didn’t feel the need to bother.

“Yeah. He’s… been away for a while.”

“For schooling, mainly,” Jason said, watching Dick’s frown intensify. 

“Hm. Well I understand your frustration, but right now our hands are tied," Gordon said. "His type have been dodging the system for years, but at least here we can use him to get some other dangerous men off the streets.”

Jason grunted dismissively before turning away from the exchange.

All he could think of was that Red Hood wouldn’t have had to deal with this shit.


	3. Chapter 3

Jason gave Dick the cold shoulder all the way back to the cave. Upon arrival he wasted no time stripping off his armor and heading to the showers in pointed silence.

Red Hood hadn’t killed every drug dealer or criminal he’d come across, not even close. Only those that broke the cardinal rules: the ones who abused or endangered women and children, and the unrepentant killers that the system couldn’t touch. So it wasn’t just the mandate on not killing that got to him - it was everything about working within the system, all of the infuriating limitations of doing things by the book. Violence didn’t go as far in that world and everything moved so much slower to the point that it made Jason’s skin crawl.

The sour thoughts were still circling around in his brain as he ascended from the cave. He didn’t stomp, because he was a grown-ass man and those days were long behind him (not to mention knocking about on that floor was forbidden ever since an angry door slam from Damian had kept Terry crying for _hours_ ), but his anger was clearly telegraphed in his stride as he made his way to his room.

Jason’s hunt for an apartment had come to a screeching halt ever since the “Furry Incident” - and that drunken outburst would probably haunt his reputation until the day he died - even though he kept meaning to pick it back up. In the meantime the bedroom had been rearranged and redecorated to the point of being his again, _really_ his and not his fifteen-year-old self’s.

He swatted the light switch off and rolled into bed, sighing as he sprawled out between the ridiculously high thread count sheets. Despite what he’d told Dick, sleep wasn’t something that always came easy. Not due to guilt of course, but because he was a ridiculously flimsy sleeper. It was common for him to wake up at random intervals depending on how secure his location was, or be disturbed at the slightest of sounds. Strangely enough that problem hadn’t followed him to the manor, and these days he was almost consistently sleeping through the night.

Jason had just let himself get truly comfortable when his eyes shot open, remembering what Dick had said.

What in the hell was supposed to happen in his room after the lights went out?

It was an ominous as hell question, and Jason couldn’t imagine how context would make it better. He looked around the darkness of his room, searching the shadows for any hint of something out of place. The minutes passed long and slow as he turned from one side to the other, assessing each half of the room around him. He had just about decided that Dick was pulling some bizarre prank on him when he felt it.

He may not have heard anything, but the presence in the hall made itself known by the prickling on the back of his neck. It was soon followed by an obstruction of the sliver of light beneath the bedroom door.

Jason tried not to go rigid. He kept his breathing steady as he turned away and quietly pulled his blanket higher around his shoulders. In the reflection of his alarm clock he could just make out the backlit outline of his door as it silently eased open.

Six agonizingly slow seconds passed before the door noiselessly slid shut once more and the shadow moved back down the hall.

Even as the minutes passed Jason still didn’t move a muscle, barely breathing hard enough to disturb the stray fibers of the heavy winter covers.

Bruce was checking his room at night. Maybe _every_ night.

Why? To see that he hadn’t run off? There were more efficient ways to do that. Not that it was beyond Jason to give the security system the slip, but with every vehicle accounted for and his armor tucked in his locker, what did Bruce imagine he’d do? Run in his pajamas wreaking havoc across the acres and acres of Wayne estate?

For the rest of the night Jason found himself staring at the ceiling, feeling the seconds tick by into hours. He couldn’t have slept if he wanted to.

* * *

 

All throughout breakfast Jason did his best surreptitiously analyze the hell out of Bruce and get some kind of hint as to what exactly was going on.

“You are not blinking,” Cass said, utterly unconcerned as she smeared butter on her waffles.

Jason grunted vaguely and waved her off with a slice of toast, still staring straight ahead to the other end of the table where Bruce was absorbed in the morning paper.

Then there was Dick, who thoroughly ignored Jason’s searching glare and unspoken demands for answers. But there wasn’t much else to look at- Tim was presumably sleeping through breakfast again, and Damian had run off with friends that Jason still couldn’t quite believe existed.

Jason finally pushed his plate away and grabbed the jacket he’d slung over the back of his chair.

“I’m heading to the penthouse. I’ll be here in time for patrol.”

Bruce shot Jason a brief look over his paper.

“You won’t be back for dinner?”

“Nah, but it’s fine. Dragon says he cooks and I figure he’s had to survive in the mountain somehow.”

Jason glanced up as he finished zipping up his jacket. Bruce seemed to be staring off into nothing as Dick gave them both a dull look that could only be described as unimpressed. Cass was still eating, almost pointedly disinterested.

“So I’ll just,” Jason said slowly. “See you later.”

“Have fun,” Cass said simply, blowing on her tea.

He left that silent dining room behind, feeling painfully out of the loop.

* * *

 

They were thankfully putting an indefinite pin in the whole meditation endeavor.

Even Dragon had conceded that it just wasn’t panning out. It wasn’t an issue of patience - Jason might not have been a fan of sitting still on the floor for an hour, but it _was_ something he could manage. Finding some kind of inner peace by counting his breathing though? That remained a tall order. Frankly he preferred getting tossed around the sparring mats.

“You may have become more familiar with what it feels like when your ability takes over,” Dragon was saying, releasing him from the pin before Jason could start going blue. “But most of your maneuvers thus far have been defensive. When you are in a life or death situation, you might find yourself taking more drastic measures.”

“Right…”

In the past week he’d taken out the lights, gotten a sparring blade stuck in one of the wall mats, and triggered the emergency sprinklers. Twice.

His subconscious apparently knew that Dragon was a superior combatant, so his meta-driven actions usually revolved around distractions and evasive tactics. If the door wasn’t reinforced, it would be sporting a Jason-sized crater right now.

“Is there something on your mind? You seem distant today.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Jason said. “Stop me if this is an insensitive thing to ask, but… when Bruce found out you’d killed before. Was he just not bothered?”

Dragon considered it as he adjusted his hand wraps. “I don’t suppose we’ve ever spoken of it.”

“But you know that I’ve killed before. A lot.” Jason said, scratching at a nonexistent itch on his neck.

Dragon held his gaze neutrally. Two sets of the same blue eyes looking into one another.

“I do.”

“And you don’t care?”

“I wouldn’t say I don’t care. But I don’t judge you for it, Jason. I don’t make it my habit to judge anyone.”

“But I’m-” The words caught in his throat. “We’re related.”

“Yes,” Dragon said, waiting for him to elaborate.

Jason looked intently at the mat, his mind rotating through all the people that Batman worked with that had blood on their hands: heroes without no-kill rules or vigilantes that weren’t so different from what Red Hood had been. Too many to count.

He was still too hung up on how last night’s investigation with Dick had gone, but the truth was that the Bats had always been willing to work with people who crossed the line. Except when Red Hood did it, he got called dangerous and unstable. Dick could argue about how working within the system was the logical thing, but it didn't quite make that double standard go away.

“It’s not my place to say, but. I would want better for you,” Dragon said, offering him a hand. “It’s a terrible burden.”

Jason took it, pulling himself to his feet. “Someone has to do it.”

“Why you?”

“Because I can,” Jason said. “I grew up watching people tear each other apart for scraps, then watching cops either do nothing or make it worse depending on their mood. I’m not going to search out people to kill, but if I see innocents suffering or put in danger? I’ll end it because I’m strong enough to do what others can’t.”

“You don’t need to tell me that you’re strong,” Dragon said. “It’s clear for anyone to see.”

Jason scoffed. Not to Bruce. Even Dick openly dismissed Jason’s methods the easy way out. And Shiva had actually called him weak to his face.

“She doesn’t think so.”

Dragon gave a sad smile. “You might be surprised.”

Eventually they found their way into the kitchen, Jason perching on a bar stool to watch the man slice bread for the stew that had been long simmering on the stove. It turned out that Dragon _could_ actually cook, and not just by boiling rabbits like a part of him had feared.

“So,” he said, ready to talk about anything else. “You’re Russian?”

“I am. I couldn’t tell you much more than that I’m afraid,” Dragon said. “Grew up in a small orphanage, ran off to Japan when I was twelve. The rest is more or less history.”

“Is it a searchable history?”

“Afraid not. Through my sensei’s connections and the ones I formed in the C.B.I., I was able to get the paperwork needed to make my way,” Dragon said. “But believe me, beyond that there’s nothing to find.”

“That’s too bad.”

Jason wasn’t all that disappointed. Between the bizarre surnames that were Drakunovski and Wu-San, he had already resigned himself to having his ethnicity and general heritage remain as some vague “other”. He had always been a bit ambiguous looking - he wouldn't have bothered seeking out Sharmin Rosen or Lady Shiva at all otherwise. The people he'd originally believed to be his parents had been white, but with no grandparents in sight he'd supposed there must have been some diversity further up the line. Now he just felt kind of stupid.

Not that it really mattered anyway.

“I searched for myself once, when I was younger. But there are simply no birth records or custody paperwork, even if you are the world’s greatest-“

Dragon’s words were lost when the wide skyline windows suddenly erupted into smoke and shattered glass. There was the hiss of a smoke bomb going off, and behind the fog the landings of five intruders could be heard.

Jason was grabbing a knife from the block before he could think about it, throwing it with cruel accuracy through the haze. He heard the shocked grunt of pain.

He had just moved to engage more personally when there was a yank on the back of his shirt, followed by the world doing a full rotation as Dragon flipped and rolled him across the dining room floor.

The Wayne Penthouse towered over Gotham’s streets, with every aspect of its construction reinforced to an industrial standard. To breach its defenses took no less than military-tier determination. There were only so many people out there with the resources, knowledge and cause to do it.

“Richard Dragon,” a woman said, her voice dubiously accented. “We have come far to challenge you.”

Jason suppressed a groan. Even when he had been kept by the League, he’d never understood those tryhard ninja types that went around picking fights just for the sake of it.

He slid over to the duffle bag he’d left at the foot of the dining table and rummaged through its contents - a domino, some small caliber handguns, a grappler, and some other basic effects. A few feet away there was the distinct snap of breaking bone followed by a male grunt of pain.

Then there was the sound of a sword being unsheathed.

Even with the smoke as dense as it was, Jason could just make out Dragon fighting through the intruders. His eyes were sharp and focused as he executed a brutal palm strike to the first attacker’s face, followed by a blow to their solar plexus. Almost simultaneously he was delivering a blow to another ninja’s throat. His movements were impossibly fast and smooth as he deflected an attack and entered into a hold that dislocated his assailant’s shoulder.

There was too much movement and smoke to risk shooting, so Jason grabbed the flame dagger he hadn’t touched in months and promptly hurdled over the table.

His boot connected with an assassin’s back, driving them face-first into a wall. There was the telltale whir of a blade slicing through the air and he ducked, going low to slice his black-clad attacker across the femoral artery. Thanks to the durable material of her clothing the ninja’s wound wasn’t deep, however it still bled profusely.

“How dare you interfere!” She snarled. “We _will_ repay the insult he once dealt to our League!”

“Oh get over yourself.” Jason caught her wrist to stop her from cleaving him in two and with the other hand held the point of his dagger to her neck. “How the hell did you know to come here?”

There was a flash of cruel mirth in the woman’s eyes, the only part of her face visible.

“Your time will come soon enough. None will stand before the-“ She took full notice of his dagger for the first time.

The assassin immediately dropped the sword with a clatter, drawing Jason’s eyes for just a half-second long enough for her to reach her belt with the other hand. A small flash bomb burst between them in a flare of light and gunpowder, burning his arms. He’d only let go for an instant, but it was all she needed to slip away through the smoke.

Jason coughed to clear his lungs, wiping his tearing eyes and flinching when Dragon placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, as fine as I can be.” Jason waved a hand to disperse the thinning vapor. “She got away.”

More and more he was starting to envy Cass and the simple convenience of her ability.

“You did well. I’m just glad you weren’t hurt.”

Jason brushed off the concern and took note of the four unconscious, bleeding assassins. “So is that what it looks like when you use your ability on purpose?”

Dragon was inspecting the ruined window, bare feet somehow completely avoiding or ignoring the shattered glass gleaming on the floor.

“No, Jason. That’s what it looks like when I purposely don’t.”

“Oh.”

Jason’s attention was drawn by the sudden buzzing of his cellphone on the kitchen counter.

“Ah, please do turn off the stove while you’re over there,” Dragon said absently, using one of the many medical kits stashed around the penthouse to patch up their motionless invaders.

“Uh huh.” Jason turned off the heating element as he answered his phone. “Y’ello?”

“ _Finally! I’ve been trying to grab a hold of you ever since the security was breached_ ,” Oracle’s voice said. “ _Are you alright?_ ”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Just some Assassins’ League thugs barging in the dining room window,” Jason said, prodding at the stew to make sure nothing was stuck on the bottom.

“ _Batman’s on his way._ ”

“Forget him, send a window repair man. I told you we’re fine.”

“ _And the assassins? Are they ‘fine’ too?_ ” Oracle asked.

“Uh…” He looked back at Dragon, who was addressing the knife Jason had thrown into one of the ninja’s shoulders. “As a matter of fact they are.”

" _Well stay put, will yo_ _u?_ "

"Didn't plan on going anywhere."

It wasn't even fifteen minutes before Batman and Nightwing were sweeping in through the dining room's new entrance, the both of them wearing serious expressions that were eerily identical.

"What. Happened?" Batman demanded as he took in the scene.

"Ninjas came through the window," Jason said blandly.

"They were looking for me," Dragon said, wiping the blood from his hands. "One got away."

Jason recognized the tension bristling in Batman's shoulders, like a swelling tidal wave preparing to crash.

"Hey, this was nobody's fault. You guys had to have been prepared for this possibility when you arranged this," Jason said.

"Perhaps I made a mistake."

He actually had to shake himself be sure he'd heard correctly.

"You _what_?"

"We did this to keep you _out_ of danger, not put you further in harm's way." Batman snapped.

"There's no such thing as out of danger for us and you fucking know it!" Jason retorted. "What's the real problem here?"

There was a tense pause.

"... It's Black Bat and Red Robin's investigation," Nightwing said finally.

Jason felt his blood pressure rise slightly. "And? Did they find Shiva?"

"No. But they did find out that assassin activity in Gotham has spiked in the past month. They've been crawling all around the city, chasing rumors that Richard Dragon has come out of seclusion." Nightwing eyed the unconscious ninjas. "And it's combined with what was already going around about you and Black Bat."

"So?" Jason asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Everyone with any association with the League knows Cass as the One Who is All. So Red Bat is now directly connected to both Shiva's daughter, _and_ Shiva's ex." Nightwing looked at the flame dagger on the table. "And Talia al Ghul too, apparently."

"It's a mess," Batman summarized gruffly. "I should never have allowed things to get to this point. It was too much too soon."

"Your and Cass' road trip to Shiva wasn't exactly subtle, Jason." Nightwing admitted.

"None of that was your call!" Jason growled. "It was my life, my decision. Whether it was a mistake or not, that's on me too. And I can manage this, alright?"

"You say that, even as assassins attack you in your civilian identity?" Batman said with a gesture at the broken window.

"A couple ninjas knowing my parentage isn't the worst thing in the world," Jason said. "Cass manages."

"You are not Cass," Batman said, the white lenses of his cowl piercing into Jason's soul. "You think that because of your history with Talia that you are immune to the League?"

"When the _hell_ did I give you that impression!?"

"Let's all just calm down, alright? Everyone's fine. Mostly." Nightwing turned to Dragon. "But it's probably best if we get these guys moved down to the car while they're still unconscious. Lend a hand?"

Dragon gave Batman and Jason a final glance, but nodded.

"Of course."

Batman didn't seem to know who or what to glare at as the assassins were carted to the private elevator, but Jason kept his gaze steady.

"Just what the hell is going on, Bruce?" He asked when they were finally alone.

"I was wondering the same thing."

"Nonono, you don't get to do that," Jason said. "Dragon’s trying to help me after you called him out here, with no never mind to what _I_ wanted, and now you're pulling some take-backsy bullshit? Just who the hell do you think you are!?"

"I'm trying to take care of you!"

"Take care of me? Now that's a fucking laugh. I haven't looked to you to take care of me since you let my murderer walk!" Jason shouted. "Since you put me in the ground and got yourself a new kid less than a year later! You’ve made it known real loud and clear how much you _care_ for me!"

Batman was stock still for a long moment. Jason wasn't even sure he was breathing.

"Jason," he said, voice low, "I've told you -"

"Yeah, you've told me all about your _rule_ ," Jason said with heavy disdain. "And you know what? _Fine_. You can't do it. Not for me. I could've... I could've lived with that. Eventually. Maybe I could've even forgiven you for getting yourself a new goldfish before the grass had even grown on my grave. But-"

A lump caught in his throat and he swallowed hard around it.

"But what I can't get past is the fact that from day one you've made it plain that you're not happy I'm back."

If there had been any poetic symbolism, and it was Gotham so by all rights there should have been, there would have been a storm. Winds, explosions. _Some_ kind of violent noise somewhere.

But it was too quiet and still in that room, so achingly silent that Jason felt it in the hollow of his chest.

"You're still mourning that kid you lost," he said shakily. "He's the one you loved. The one you want back. You look at me and I'm not him."

Seconds stretched into eternity until Jason finally turned and navigated to the front door in a haze, numbly grabbing his jacket off the sofa as he went. He barely acknowledged Nightwing by the door, looking somber and not moving to stop him.

There wasn't anything left to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this time, but we're winding up to a big one.


	4. Chapter 4

On the drive back to the manor the hollow in Jason's chest had condensed into a cold pit, weighing across his lungs. He pulled into the cave in a haze, moving completely on autopilot. Park the bike. Put on the armor. Fold the clothes into the locker. He didn't know what else to do but act out routine. Beat by beat.

He had sent all thoughts of Bruce to the back of his mind to be swallowed up and smothered for later compartmentalization. As he snapped his helmet into place, he locked the troubles of Jason Todd away. Red Bat didn’t have time for them.

Assassins had come looking for Richard Dragon, and while it was always a chore to try and figure out just how they knew in terms of identities or interpersonal connections, the ninja that got away had certainly seemed surprised by Jason's dagger. The odds were good that Talia hadn't sent these particular assassins, and he wasn't going to pretend he wasn't relieved by that. But Dick said the city was crawling with them, and that meant there was more where they came from.

The one Jason wounded would need medical attention, and discreet back-alley doctors were harder to come by on the southernmost island. Iceberg Lounge aside, there was really only one main hub of street-tier gang activity within reasonable distance to the penthouse.

Jason revved his bike and made once more for the tunnels.

* * *

 

Chinatown had always had a unique atmosphere as far as gang-controlled territories went. For one, it actually had decent civilian foot traffic, even at night. There was still the occasional gunfight or territory struggle and the gangs still had local businesses pay up for 'protection', but there was order. Possibly because the district had such clear boundaries between it and the rest of the city.

Back when he was Red Hood, Jason had never cared to expand his control here. It had been so far away from the rest of his territory and where his power was based, and to be frank he'd mostly cared about Crime Alley and its surrounding areas. Chinatown hadn't seemed worth overextending himself for.

There was a different feeling in the air as Jason navigated the alleyways and rooftops, lurking just beyond the range of the red lanterns and neon signs that lit the main street. The usual aura of tentative peace was replaced with one of tension, as if the whole neighborhood was holding its breath. Even the tourists felt it, moving on quickly after their shopping or eating their meals a little faster than usual under the strained smiles of their waiters.

Now that he was here, Jason had no idea how nobody had noticed sooner that Chinatown was under temporary League occupation. The Ghost Dragons may have wrestled dominance away from the Steel Unicorns (and Jason still had no idea if that name was meant to be ironic or not) but they were still small potatoes compared to the assassins.

As Jason moved over the various shops, restaurants and apartments, he was also rifling through the data in his helmet: updated records of local gang activity, business fronts, and surveillance chatter. Eventually he found the place he was looking for.

Behind a traditional apothecary was a backroom dedicated to patching up injured gang members. It was one of the first places the invading assassins would have claimed.

Jason deliberated on the rooftop for all of three minutes before deciding that he really wasn't in the mood for subtlety.

The back door was launched off its hinges against the force of his armored boot, clattering to the white tiled floor. The 'doctor' was an older man who didn't look especially surprised at the invasion, if a bit unamused about his door.

"I'm sure you've got insurance," Jason said, turning to the woman who was sitting on the table and surrounded by bloody gauze. "Just need a moment with your patient."

The assassin was unmasked, but he could recognize the injury he'd given her not even two hours ago. Her leg had been tended to, but any activity on her part risked reopening the wound.

Sometimes Jason did have to appreciate that ninjas didn't like guns. It made his own current lack of firepower a little easier to bear.

"So.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against the wall. “I believe you were just about to share how you found Richard Dragon."

The assassin set her jaw and glared at him with defiant eyes.

"You are nothing but the discarded pet of my lord’s daughter,” she said coldly. “You have no right to make demands of me."

"Okay." Jason unsheathed a knife from his belt and held it against her bandaged thigh. "You want to run that by me one more time?"

A flicker of concern crossed her eyes. "You wouldn’t dare kill. Not in his city."

"I'd think you Leaguers would know better than most just how much I'd dare to do in Batman's city," Jason said. "Who sent you here?"

The assassin hesitated as he pressed harder against the wound.

"We... we were not sent."

Jason tilted his head thoughtfully. "So you're here without orders, is that it? Does the Demon's Head know you're stirring up trouble without his say so?"

"We have done the League no dishonor," the assassin said. "On our own time we have followed rumors that the world's greatest fighter has emerged once again. His blood would be the greatest prize for our lord."

"Mmhm." Jason's grip tightened. "And where did these rumors come from?"

There was a pause. Then a slow, smug smirk drew across the assassin's face.

"We have heard much of you, Red Bat." She taunted. "This cursed city is heavy with news of your exploits. Brother to the One Who Is All."

"Black Bat's got plenty of brothers. It's not so special."

"But only one accompanied her to the Divine Cradle," the assassin said. "Only one sought out the Lady Shiva."

"Why don't you cut the crap and answer my question,” Jason said. “Who. Sent. You."

She tilted her head back to stare into the red reflective surface of his helmet. "Who knows the Dragon best? Who watches his comings and goings most intimately?"

There was a flush of cold that Jason felt right through to his bones.

"You're lying."

The assassin laughed sharply. "She has been watching you most keenly from the start. For what, I cannot imagine. It is clear you do not possess a fraction of your progenitors' talent, nor your sister's. I suppose every family has its disappoi-"

Jason tightened his grip on her throat for a count of ten, then waited for her rattled coughing to cease.

"So she's here then, somewhere in the city."

His voice was calm, and to his surprise he actually felt calm too. A fog had quickly settled over his mind, leaving him pleasantly cool and detached.

A light on the HUD of his helmet had started to blink with an incoming call. He ignored it and returned the full force of his attention to his captive, pinning her harder against the wall.

"Here's what you're going to do. I want word to get to Mother Dearest that I'm calling her out. Tonight, at the Old Gotham Cathedral. Think you can handle that?"

The assassin blinked, bewildered.

"... She is going to _destroy_ you."

"Thanks for your input." He threw her across the floor. "Get moving. Or else I'm coming back here and personally weeding you and all your friends out of this neighborhood building by building."

Jason wasn't even out of Chinatown before his helmet began to blink with another incoming call. Again he silenced it, watching the rooftops with one eye and scanning the Cathedral's schematics with the other. He was just in the middle of noting potential locations for stashing weapons or explosives when the entire sprawl of tabs he had open suddenly shut down.

Jason stumbled before finding his footing atop a mid-rise building. He urgently tried to access the database again only to get an error tone. Then his helmet's files. The internet. His goddamn music playlist.

Error, error, error.

Suddenly large, bolded letters blared across the screen:

SAFETY LOCK ACTIVATED. INITIATING HOMING BEACON.

"What? I didn't fucking tell you to -" Before his horrified eyes he saw the light go on that indeed signified that his location was being broadcast to the entire family. "God _dammit_ Barbara-!"

Jason wrestled the helmet from his head and punted it clear off the rooftop.

"I should've fucking known!" With fresh anger in his veins he fired his grappler off into the night, eager to put as much distance between himself and that tracker as possible.

* * *

 

As the historic religious center of Gotham, the cathedral was a marvel of architecture. From the gargoyles to the stained glass windows to every dark brick and stone, it was the quintessential example of the city's gothic aesthetic.

He could see the Clock Tower from here and valiantly restrained himself from giving it the middle finger.

If he’d been on the other side of the building he would have also been able to see Wayne Tower in the distance, and one thing about Gotham he suddenly couldn’t stand was the fact that you couldn’t go three blocks without running into something with that bastard’s name on it. There were more Wayne offices, Wayne streets, and Wayne buildings in this city than there were Starbucks.

Jason wasn't entirely sure how long he waited, standing on the long terrace that overlooked the courtyard and cathedral square. There was only the barest rustle of wind in the night, mingling with the hum of cars another street over.

He flinched when the cathedral bell began to toll, chiming the hour in long, echoing tones. Birds took flight in waves from rooftops, fluttering in a wide circuit around the square. He watched as they scattered and settled on other buildings, his hands clenched tightly as he waited out the final resounding peal of the bell.

And then there was silence, a nocturnal quiet that stretched on for several long minutes.

Jason had consciously heard and sensed nothing when his muscles suddenly tensed, his reflexes reacting to unseen stimuli and moving him swiftly to the side. A split second later a glint of metal flashed past his face. The dagger flew straight by and off the other side of the terrace.

There was a the soft, confident clack of boots on stone that he was now allowed to hear.

“I’m surprised I had to seek you out,” Jason said, turning to her.

“Well I did only come to observe you this time,” Shiva said, her long coat softly catching in the wind. “It is your father I intend to challenge.”

Dressed in red and black and framed in shadows, she looked even fiercer than when he’d seen her in Toronto. An older, crueler version of Cass with sharper, unsmiling features.

“Why send the assassins?”

“He has enjoyed solitude for far too long. That peace he hungered for when we were children has spoiled him,” Shiva said. “And it amuses me, to see him bring others pain.”

Jason fought to keep his expression impassive.

“You hate him.”

“I do,” she said easily. “Would you not hate the one who has refused you the one true thing you wish for in this life? I thought you might understand.”

Jason’s eyes were carefully tracking every one of Shiva’s movements. “Understand what?”

“You hate the Bat because he will not kill for you. Is it so different, what Richard Dragon has denied me?”

Jason was suddenly grateful for the domino that hid his eyes, not that any of his efforts made a difference. It was useless to try and hide anything from Shiva.

“Ah, so you do see. For all his claims of love, Dragon still abandoned me. I have given him every chance over the years to prove his devotion. Every time I am rejected.”

“You’re asking him to take your life! He can’t _because_ loves you,” Jason said in disbelief. “It’s not the same.”

“Whether it were me or a peasant on the street, he would fail me regardless.” Shiva’s silk belt rippled beside her in a ribbon of crimson as she took confident strides across the terrace. “An honorless death of age or illness, is that what he wants for his love? Is that what he thinks I deserve?”

“You are not _that_ old,” Jason said flippantly.

“Time is finite, son. And it is the principle of the thing,” Shiva said. “If a star were to crash from the heavens and kill your murderer, would would you feel justice and let all be forgotten between you and the Batman?”

Jason swallowed. “I’d be happy to have the clown dead no matter what the cause.”

“Oh?” Shiva asked lightly. “Then I should kill him myself. And in return, you would develop your father’s gift and repay me in kind.”

Jason’s breath caught, his heart rate stuttering.

Shiva smiled. “You are a smart boy. You can’t possibly believe you can win against me.”

He shook his head. “It’s not about winning.”

“No?”

“It’s about us. It’s about how you threw me away without looking back, how you lied to my face and let me die, how you and Talia have been playing with my life since day one,” Jason said, finding his stance. “You’ve jerked me around for years and I’m not going to take it lying down just because you’re stronger than me.”

There was a pleased look in Shiva’s eyes.

“So you are my son after all.”

Jason said nothing, the approval sitting unpleasantly in his gut.

“Very well, child. Though I must ask, is all of that really necessary?” Shiva’s gaze passed over his armor. “I see that overcompensation is another trait the Bat has instilled in you.”

“I’m a pragmatic man. Cass designed it anyway,” Jason said. “I don’t think you’re in a position to complain about how we were raised.”

“Your weakness for your sister has cost you enough, don’t you think? I can’t imagine indulging her has been worth it.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about me or Cass.” Jason snarled. “She’s the only good thing to come of me having anything to do with you.”

Shiva shrugged airily. “I suppose I should be grateful that the firearms have been retired. It is such an artless way to kill.”

“And I really wish you’d all stop nagging me about that,” Jason said, taking stance. “In fact, let’s just quit talking in general.”

“As you wish.” With that Shiva was moving with inhuman speed, striking like a viper.

Jason was only truly armored on his shoulders, shins, forearms and his upper chest. The rest was kevlar and reinforced fabric. When Shiva nailed him in the stomach, he felt it straight through the padding.

 _Focusfocusfocus_ was on repeat in his mind as he took several paces back. It was as his adrenaline peaked that he felt it happen.

Without even thinking about it he used the steel vambraces on his arms to deflect Shiva’s next attack, his whole body suddenly hyperaware of every part of him that she could access through his suit. He had size, weight and defense on her; she had speed and ridiculous amounts of both experience and skill.

Jason felt himself lunge to the side, drawing her towards a part of the terrace he hadn’t previously noticed was patched with black ice. A quarter second of re-orientation on her part was all he needed land a punch.

At the sound of the impact his body froze, shocked from the trance he’d entered.

Shiva slowly brought a hand to her face, to the swelling in her cheek and the blood trickling from her lip. For a wild moment the only thing Jason could make himself think was _I just decked my mother in the face._

Then Shiva was grinning red, and his thoughts became disorganized babble of obscenities.

He blocked the next two strikes on instinct, but ducking the third brought him lower, and he was suddenly feeling the slam of her knee into his gut. The wind left him in a violent rush, and then there was the harsh press of her hand on a point in his neck.

Pain was suddenly screaming down his left side, and the nailing of another pressure point in his leg had him crumpling to the ground. He felt the heel of her boot against his hip, pinning him down throughout the lingering muscle spasms that were jolting across his body. She kept the pressure even as he stilled, unable to stand or even turn his head. His cheek was cold and raw against the rough stone of the terrace floor.

Jason’s gloved hands scrabbled across the ground. Shiva shushed him as the lingering tremors began to fade, her nails scraping gently across his scalp.

“So you _do_ have a dragon in you. This pleases me,” she said warmly. “Have you given more thought to my offer? I can kill the mad clown slowly, if you like. I’ll tell him it’s for you.”

“Or what?” He asked through grit teeth. “You’ll kill me instead?”

Shiva’s fingers combed through his hair, rubbing idly at where the dye had mostly come away from the white streak. “I could.”

“I thought you had a deal with Talia.”

“Hm, that is troublesome. As long as you are under her protection, I am bound to spare your life.” Shiva tsked. “I suppose I could just kill her.”

Jason twitched. “You’re bluffing.”

“Maybe for now. But who can say how desperate I’ll be in five, ten years’ time?” Shiva asked. “Even your father is getting older. There may come a day when you are a better candidate than him to give me what I want.”

“You’re not getting what you want today, Sandra.”

Shiva’s hand froze.

Turning his neck was still a painful task, but Jason could strain just enough to see Dragon standing on the other end of the terrace. The cracked Red Bat helmet was under his arm.

“Richard,” Shiva said in bland greeting. “Isn’t this a surprise. Just what could have brought you down from your lofty moral tower?”

“You know what.” Dragon turned his focus to him. “Are you alright, Jason?”

“The boy is largely unharmed, though your timing isn’t as prompt as it used to be.”

“I figured you’d be here.” Dragon held up the helmet. “The Cathedral is the most notable landmark within five miles of where this was dropped. It sure seems that the two of you share a flair for the dramatic.”

Jason frowned as Dragon placed the helmet on the ground. He wasn’t _that_ bad. Mostly.

“We need to have some words, Sandra.”

“Is that so,” Shiva said, rising from Jason’s side. “About the boy, I assume.”

Dragon looked at her irritably, the closest Jason had ever seen to an angry expression on his face.

“He’s ours.”

“He was. He belongs to the Bat now.”

“You know what I mean. We have a _son_ , Sandra. One you never cared to tell me about.”

“Does it anger you, Richard?” Shiva asked approaching him. “Tell me you hate me for it. That it’s finally enough for you to finish what we started.”

“You’ve been trying to goad me into killing you for years. Coming to see me, sending me students - but at no point during any of it did you mention our son.”

“It didn’t seem relevant at the time.”

“You let him be raised by _assassins!”_ Dragon exclaimed. “The same people who turned Ben into a monster!”

“As opposed to what, sending him to your little mountain lodge?” Shiva sneered. “So you could teach him to be soft and weak like _you?_ At least al Ghul gave him some mettle.”

“It saddens me to see you like this, Sandra. It really does. That you would subject your own children to torment just to get what you want.” Dragon shook his head, blue eyes cold. “Carolyn wouldn’t want this for you.”

All at once the mocking, faux-casual posture disappeared from Shiva’s stance.

“You know _nothing_ about my sister,” she said dangerously. “She died at the hands of my first child’s father so that I could be transformed. All that I am now is _her_ legacy. And it’s a legacy that will not die in obscurity.”

Jason had always known it, but now it was truly starting to sink in how absolutely crackers his whole family was.

“You had a destiny once, Richard. But you shied away from greatness and turned your back on it. I would not have our son do the same,” Shiva said, shedding her coat. “Fate has already given him prominence. But you can still be the man who took the love and life of Lady Shiva.”

“I’ve already told you that I can’t.”

“You’ve killed before, against your ruling judgement. You can do it again.”

In a blink Shiva was across the terrace, attacking Dragon with such force and precise brutality that it was painfully obvious that she’d been holding back on Jason. Dragon was acting defensively, blocking her moves but going for holds and pins instead of returning her attacks. Watching them fight, blow for blow, was almost a moving experience. Like art.

Jason felt the darkness shift around him just before steady hands began to move him upright. He hissed at the painful tug of his muscles, avoiding Batman’s gaze as his weight was lifted.

Black Bat was there too, her mouth troubled as she pulled her eyes away from their mother. Despite Jason’s flailing she managed to take his other arm.

“Wait, I -“

“We can’t stay.”

They all but carried Jason off the terrace roof, ignoring his squirming attempts to watch the fight unfolding behind them.

His blood parents, locked in combat like two forces of nature meeting, were soon out of his sight.

* * *

 

Jason lay in the infirmary, eyes trained on the point where his toes tented the sheets. Under the covers he was wearing sweats, his suit in a pile on a nearby table.

There were too many things to think about - Dragon, Bruce, Shiva, her offer - so he thought about none of it. He stared vacantly at nothing with a hot compress against his side as he waited for his muscles to stop hurting.

He heard the ripple of Batman’s cape a few paces away. He didn’t look up.

“So what happened?”

“Dragon and Shiva have separated,” Bruce said. “Black Bat and Nightwing are driving out the rest of the assassins from the city, but I don’t suspect any of them would stay anyway now that the excitement’s over. You created quite the scene.”

Jason grunted neutrally. He really wasn’t up for a lecture. He just wanted Bruce to leave.

There was a moment of hesitation before Bruce came closer, cowl down, to sit at the bedside.

“Jason.”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“I know I haven’t made my feelings especially clear to you-“

“They’ve come across clear enough,” Jason said dryly.

“Please.” Bruce’s voice cracked in a way that made Jason flinch. “There are things that I realize I have left unsaid for far too long. Things that perhaps I hadn’t truly realized for myself until recently. I know I have no right to ask it of you, but please. Just listen.”

Jason gnawed at his lip and refocused on the points of his toes. Anywhere but at the man beside him.

“I’m never going to be the same man I was before I lost you,” Bruce said. “It destroyed me. My only solace was thinking that you had found peace and that I could continue the fight in your name. And then when you came back, when I began to suspect Red Hood’s identity… I was horrified.”

Jason tasted blood as he bit through his lip.

“I feared that something terrible must have become of you, that some unholy force had violated my son. I assumed the worst, and the discovery of the Pit’s intervention seemed to confirm my fears. I looked at you and saw my failure to protect you not only in life, but in death as well.” Bruce took a shaky breath. “Of course I wanted you back. Of course I wished I could do it all over again differently. But when you did return it felt like it had to be a terrible trick. That if I let myself have it, and have you, that it would all be revealed and I would lose you all over again. And I wouldn’t have survived it.”

“But it wasn’t a trick,” Jason said, his voice hoarse. “I’m here.”

“I know. It’s taken me a long time to believe. Too long. I don’t think I’ve let myself be happy until this year.” Bruce sighed. “I thought… I thought that in my actions I had shown you how happy I was to have you back. To have you home.”

“Is that why you lurk around, checking my room in secret?” Jason asked, forcing himself to look at him for the first time. “Because you’re so eager to show me how you feel?”

Bruce’s steel blue eyes flickered guiltily. “I’ve been afraid, Jason. There are still nights when I’m afraid that you’re going to disappear and that it’ll have all been a dream. But that’s my fault. I have been trying.”

“Right,” Jason took an unsteady breath. “And what about Tim?”

Bruce’s shoulders tensed.

“You didn’t even wait a year before taking another one on,” Jason said. “Did Batman need a Robin that badly? Is that all I was to you, just another prop to fill the void after Dick?”

“ _No_. Jason, I-“ Bruce pressed a hand tiredly to his brow. “Those months after I lost you were a blur. Bruce Wayne had all but disappeared and all I could think of was throwing myself into my work. I’d driven Dick away, we were both so angry and shaken by grief. Alfred was afraid he’d be burying me next, and honestly I was ready to die.”

“And what, Drake fixed everything, is that it?” Jason asked.

“No. When Tim came to us I was fully prepared to send him away. I wanted to. But then I looked a little deeper and I saw things in him that truly concerned me,” Bruce said. “Obsessive tendencies. A fixation on us and the work we do. A lack of adult oversight. The skills and tenacity to pursue us the way he did. And I knew that if I sent him away, that there was a very slim chance that he would simply return to his normal life. I saw two options: that Timothy Drake would get himself killed on one of his investigative exploits, or that he would grow up, and potentially become something dangerous.”

They sat there in silence for long, agonizing seconds.

“Batman didn’t need a Robin, Jason. I was committed to retiring Robin for good,” Bruce said finally. “But Tim needed guidance. And I thought… I suppose I thought that helping him was what you would have wanted me to do.”

Jason swallowed hard. “Well. Shows what you know.”

The corner of Bruce’s mouth twitched into a sad smile.

“It was an irresponsible decision. I was not emotionally stable enough to take on a student. It wasn’t fair to put Tim in that position, nor was it particularly ethical considering he wasn’t even my own son.” Bruce sighed. “And it wasn’t as respectful to your memory as I had conceived.”

Jason rubbed at his eyes.

“I should have told you from the start. I should have told you every day since I knew you were alive,” Bruce said, putting both hands on Jason’s shoulders. “I love you, Jason. _You._ Losing that boy six years ago has scarred me deeply, but the you I have here now is just as much my son. Just as valued. And I am so, so glad that you’re back.”

His grip tightened as Jason’s shoulders began to tremble.

“I can’t kill for you,” Bruce said. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you needed any kind of proof that I cared.”

It was everything he’d wanted and dreaded to hear. Jason knew he was crying as he numbly allowed Bruce to pull him into a hug. Then, heart pounding in his ears, he slowly let himself hug back.

“So how much of that did you come up with yourself?” Jason asked thickly, his face buried in Bruce’s shoulder.

“Dick did give me a very thorough scolding after you left,” Bruce said. “He can be quite articulate, you know.”

Jason scoffed. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m aware.”

“The absolute worst.”

“Could you forgive me for it?”

Jason sniffled. “We’ll see.”

* * *

 

Jason sat at the cafe table, wearing sunglasses indoors like a tool despite the fact it was also a miserable overcast day of Gotham winter.

“Glad to see you’re in one piece,” he said, swishing the tea around in his to-go cup. “Sorry I had to cut and run.”

“No, I’m glad you were taken home safely,” Dragon said.

The man’s arm was in a sling and a nasty bruise had developed on the side of his face, but despite this he seemed as calm and pleasant as ever.

“How’s Shiva?”

“She’s had worse, I’m sure. But our fights always end more or less the same way: after the first few bones break but it’s still clear I’m not going to try and kill her, she leaves in a huff.” Dragon shrugged.

“Oh. Well, sorry for the…” Jason squinted at a blotch on Dragon’s neck. “Did she _bite_ you?”

“Ah.” Dragon cleared his throat and reached into his jacket. “I actually wanted to give you something, before I left town.”

He produced a long chain from his pocket, at the end of which was a jade pendant shaped like a claw.

“My sensei gave this talisman to me when I was younger to help me focus my ability.”

Jason stared at it. “… You’re telling me there was a magic cheat to this whole thing the _entire_ time?”

“Well I wanted you to at least try to handle it under your own power,” Dragon said. “And you’ve made improvements, but this should help you while I’m gone.”

“Hm.” Jason took the pendant, examining it critically. “… Wait, this isn’t some Dumbo-magic-feather thing, is it?”

“I actually don’t know,” Dragon said with a casual sip of his tea. “It’s always worked for me, is all. But I don’t need it anymore.”

“Oh, well. Thanks,” Jason said, tentatively clasping it around his neck. “So you’re heading back to Canada?”

“I think it’s best if I disappear again for a short while. At least until things settle down a bit,” Dragon said. “You’re always welcome to visit though. For any reason at all.”

“Yeah… I’ll probably take you up on that,” Jason said. “You’re not really what I expected. But… I am glad that I got to meet you.”

As Jason shook Dragon’s hand he knew that it was actually true. He hadn’t wanted or needed to know who his biological father was, but considering how disappointing the last two investigations into his parentage had been, this had actually gone pretty well.

Not even five minutes had passed since Dragon left before his seat was being filled again.

“Goddammit Grayson, how long were you sneaking around?”

“I wasn’t sneaking!” Dick protested, waving his coffee in Jason’s face. “See?”

He was wearing an ugly afghan scarf with a puffy winter vest that looked like it came straight out of the 80’s, and frankly Jason was embarrassed to be within five feet of him.

“That doesn’t prove a damn thing,” Jason said. “What do you want?”

“Oh nothing much. Just wanted to say that Barbara found the _wildest_ thing today.”

“Here we go.” Jason grumbled. “I am not talking to her until I finish rebuilding my helmet. It’s really beneath her, putting a parental lock in my system.”

“Ah, yeah.” Dick coughed. “The thing is that Babs didn’t activate that. I did.”

Jason slowly put his cup down. “You what.”

“Well can you blame me?” Dick asked, spreading his arms. “Every time you run off, you throw yourself into some crazy situation. And I was right! You got in a grudge match with your mom in a cathedral, in front of an entire audience of League members! Pretty sure that’s a sin.”

“I’ll add it to the list.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Keep your hands off my new helmet.”

“It was an emergency measure that we knew had a one-time use. But anyway.” Dick waved his hand dismissively. “Not what I was talking about. Apparently you used some family connections to talk to a _judge_ recently? Expedited a little bit of paperwork, huh?”

Jason crossed his arms. “So?”

“Hey, I’m not hassling you. I think it’s great!” Dick grinned, before sobering somewhat. “But you know what it means, right?”

“An impending media hellstorm, yeah.”

“Not just that. It means you’re officially shedding Talia’s protection,” Dick said. “And that means her deal with Shiva is off.”

“I’m done relying on Talia for anything. And I’ve got time before Shiva tries again,” Jason said. “After cleaning my clock out like she did, it’ll be a good long while before she thinks I’m worth challenging again.”

“I don’t like the gambles you make, Jason,” Dick said. “But I feel better knowing you’ll be with the family.”

“And what about you? I haven’t heard anything about you going back to Bludhaven.”

“Yeah…” Dick rubbed his neck awkwardly. “Looks like there’s plenty for me to do around here. You and Bruce take a lot out of me, y’know?”

“No one asked you to butt in.”

“As if standing in the same room as you wasn’t like hearing an endless scream for help. And by the way, ever since that display at the cathedral I hear that Red Bat’s practically become a meme down in the Gotham underworld,” Dick said. “No one can figure out how many parents he’s got.”

“Funny.”

“Sure is. Meet you back at the house, yeah?” Dick stood up, adjusting his godawful scarf. “I can’t wait to see the look on Bruce’s face when he hears.”

* * *

 

Jason didn’t actually plan on telling Bruce himself. Not that he had delusions of keeping it a secret or anything, but it just felt like such an awkward thing to come out and say. A part of him wondered if Bruce would actually be alright with it, or if he’d be more of a hardass about the situation with Shiva.

On second thought, maybe it _was_ better to tell him. That way they could undo it without too much scandal if… if it wound up not being okay.

Jason couldn’t help but jostle anxiously as he rode the private elevator up to Bruce’s office, rehearsing various versions of sentences in his mind. Nothing sounded right.

The doors swept open and he gave a slight jump to see Kate Kane standing there, her eyes bright and face flushed.

“Oh! Jason. Hello,” she said, sounding almost breathless as she fumbled with her phone.

“Hey. Everything alright?”

“What? Yes, I’m sorry I’m just in a bit of a rush,” Kate said, trading places with him in the elevator. “Trying to get in touch with Renee, but I guess she’s working - it was good to see you -“

“Uh huh.” Jason raised a skeptical eyebrow as Kate hammered the ‘close door’ button on the elevator until she finally disappeared from sight. “O-kay.”

Jason navigated down the hall in mild confusion before remembering his own mission. With a deep breath he reached out and knocked on the door. Perhaps not as loudly as he should have. Two seconds later and he was prepared to shrug and say he gave it a shot, and then -

“Kate? Was there something else?” The door opened and Bruce stood up straighter. “Jason. Are you alright? What’s wrong? Come in.”

“Nothing’s wrong. I guess. Probably not,” Jason said, stepping into the large office. “What did Kate want?”

“Oh. I suppose I’ve just come to realize that I have the tendency to overextend myself,” Bruce said. “And that it’s not always for the best.”

“Really.”

“Did you know that she and Detective Montoya have been looking to adopt?”

“No,” Jason said, because obviously he wouldn’t have. “Why, are we giving away Damian?”

Bruce gave him an unamused look.

The seconds ticked by.

“Oh. _Oh._ ” Jason glanced back the way Kate had gone. “She wants Terry?”

“Very much.” Bruce didn’t look enthusiastic about it, but his voice was level. “I simply don’t have the resources, emotional or temporal, to raise an infant. And Alfred has brought up enough children, I think.”

“Wow. That’s… surprisingly responsible of you,” Jason said. “I’m sure he’ll be really well taken care of.”

“Hm.” Bruce sighed. “Anyway. What brings you here?”

“Uh.” Jason shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not… I mean, you’ve got a lot going on. So it can wai-“

 _“Excuse me, Mr. Wayne?”_ A voice chimed over the intercom. _“I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but there’s quite a crowd of press gathering in front of the building.”_

They had worked a lot faster than Jason expected. Maybe the ‘assassination attempt’ that was the penthouse window getting busted in had made them more attentive.

“What’s happened?” Bruce asked.

Jason pulled the folder of paperwork out of his jacket’s inner pocket.

“Um. Merry Christmas?”

“It’s not -“

“I know it’s no- look, just-“ Jason waved the folder in Bruce’s direction, a hand covering his own face.

Bruce took it from him like it had the potential to catch fire, looking at him dubiously and pulling the papers out. Jason resisted the urge to chew on something - his lip had only just scabbed over - as Bruce read the forms inside.

“This is a final judgement from the courthouse saying that you’ve changed your…” Bruce trailed off. “Oh.”

Jason could feel his own cells aging as he waited for Bruce to say something. To do something, _anything_ but stare at the papers in his hands like they were written in alien glyphs.

Seconds turned into minutes. He knew because he was watching the clock in the corner.

“Is this… is it okay?”

“Okay?” Bruce repeated numbly.

“You know,” Jason said, hands fluttering anxiously at his sides. “It’s a bit late to take it back now. I mean, we still could, if you wanted to but it’d be a bit-“

He cut off as Bruce pulled him forward, wrapping him in a crushing hug.

“Nng. I mean,” Jason said, finding his breath, “I know this is as good as confirmation for all the rumors. And you know that it’s also me shucking Talia’s protection.”

“You don’t need her protection,” Bruce said vehemently. “And I’ll figure out a statement to make to the press.”

“Try not to drag her too hard through the dirt, yeah?” Jason said. “I know you don’t owe her anything but…”

Bruce’s hold tightened. “We’ll see.”

It felt like hours before Bruce finally let Jason go, his eyes glassy as he placed the paperwork carefully down on his desk. For another few minutes he just looked at it, and Jason had the strangest inkling that Bruce was thinking of getting the papers framed or something.

He decided to let him have his moment, heart still thudding in his chest as he picked up the nearby remote and turned on the flatscreen that Bruce kept in his office.

As expected, the news that Jason Head had become Jason Wayne was all over the local channels.

“I still can’t believe they found out that quick,” Jason said.

“They were probably monitoring the records and waiting for something like this to happen,” Bruce said. “We can escape out the private entrance for now. I’m sure Alfred has already seen and is preparing something to celebrate.”

Jason knew there had to be an upside to the media circus.

“Let me finish up here and we’ll head home.” Bruce pressed a button on the intercom and began describing to his assistant the very detailed and expensive-sounding gift basket he wanted sent to the judge.

“Yeah,” Jason said, tearing his gaze from the television. “Home sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, about 8 months later and at the end of Nests and Cages.  
> When I wrote Needles or Pins, it was simply me attempting to take a very uncomfortable issue from canon and give it some weight and respect. No One’s Son branched off from that naturally, but anything after that point became an alternate canon where I aimed to show Jason’s full journey to reconciliation (alongside the filling of a few plot holes regarding his parentage).  
> There will be more fics that take place within the universe of N&C, but the series' arc of Jason returning to the family has concluded. I'd like to thank everyone who has stuck with it from the start as well as those who joined along the way <3


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